Recently, the Tory Council announced that it was considering replacing the 18 Contractors that it uses for its building maintenance service with a single contractor. Labour immediately greeted this with hostility and argued against the move. Thurrock Labour Party Chairman and local Councillor – Carl Morris – then went on to chair a scrutiny committee this summer that recommended the Council should not move to a single contractor but continue to employ a number of smaller companies.
It has now emerged that two companies, which the Council uses and who would be adversely affected by the decision to appoint a single contractor, are past donors to the Labour Party, something that was not declared at the time! Both companies were awarded contracts when Labour ran the Council.
According to independent data published on the Electoral Commission website, Just before the local elections in 2007, a company called Econogas Ltd - based in Laindon, Essex – made a donation of nearly £1,500 to Thurrock Labour Party, just a few months before Cllr. Morris and Labour colleagues sat on the cross party scrutiny committee and argued in favour of multiple contractors which would have included this Econogas.
In May 2001, Castle Point Heating Co. Ltd made a donation of £2,500 to Basildon and East Thurrock Labour Party and is also on of the 18 Contractors used by Thurrock Council.
Leading the charge for the Conservatives, Cllr. Ben Maney said, “There is something very murky about this. Labour said that the reason they opposed a move to a single contractor was because they were standing up for local businesses but in fact only about five out of the eighteen companies that would be affected are from Thurrock so that argument does not hold much water. Is it that what we have here is an attempt by Labour to protect companies – both based outside Thurrock – because they have made financial donations to the party? “
Thurrock Conservative Association Chairman, Fred Topham Added, “this is a very serious exposure, there is little chance that Cllr. Morris, as chair of Thurrock Labour Party, would not have known about the donation from Econogas or that they were Council contractors and had been for many years. There needs to be a full and transparent inquiry into this and Labour need to come clean. It is very hard to see how the public can have confidence in them after this”.
Thurrock Conservatives
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