Shropshire Council defends £28,000 Shrewsbury Flower Show sponsorship
Tuesday 23rd August 2011, 3:51PM BST.
Shropshire Council chiefs have spent £28,000 on sponsorship of Shrewsbury Flower Show in the past two years, it was revealed today.
Representatives from the authority enjoyed free champagne and food in a VIP marquee, along with other sponsors and invited guests, as a thank you for their support. Officials at the council said they spent £15,000 last year on sponsorship of the annual event but scaled it down to £13,000 this year.
They defended the spend and claimed it was important to support the Shropshire Horticultural Society, organisers of the show, which does a lot for charity.
But union leaders today claimed the sponsorship deal was “disgusting” and said it sent completely the wrong message to staff.
Alan James, secretary of Shropshire Unison, said any cash support for the show should have been scrapped this year in light of plans to make workers take a 5.4 per cent pay cut and agree to new terms and conditions.
He said: “It’s a well worn path and it’s just another shining example of the drip feed coming out of Shirehall on top of the iPads and hotel stays.
“The flower show has nothing to do with Shropshire Council services and it’s wrong to be entertaining people like this because there aren’t many council staff getting entertained at the moment.
“It’s just typical of the us and them attitude of the management and it’s really starting to hack off the rank and file members of staff.”
The council receives a stand at the event as part of the sponsorship package, which has been used by the adults with learning disabilities team both in 2010 and 2011.
Council leader Keith Barrow said: “We have a budget set aside for supporting local tourism and enterprise, and decided to put some of that towards sponsoring the flower show over the past two years.
“I’m keen to support the show because it’s important to encourage local tourism –especially during these difficult economic times. The organising committee is a charity, which itself has donated over £300,000 to good causes over the past couple of years, and that couldn’t happen without the support of sponsors.”
Yesterday an e-mail was sent to all staff at Shirehall warning them to treat gifts and offers of hospitality with “caution”.
It says employees may only accept hospitality if there is a “genuine need” to impart information or to represent the council in the community.
By Russell Roberts
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Surely the £28,000 sponsorship helps to support an activity which brings coachloads of people from all over the West Midlands into Shrewsbury. My mother came up from Coventy on such a trip a few years ago and I met her on the grounds and we had a wonderful time walking around and looking at the displays.
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jolly nice for you oswestrian, as your a councillor i bet you got in for free too didnt you!!!
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I agree that we should encourage people to Shrewsbury via the Flower Show but I do question whether the SHS really need sponsorship. Tickets were priced at an exobritant £24 each for adults and there were so many stalls this year who presumably all had to pay a premium to sell their wares. What other events do you pay that much money? Would someone from the SHS care to explain how much money they made out of the event to see if the £13k was really needed?
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Is all a little cringing , however happens in all organizations pointless moaning about it . However the champers if it could be called that, on offer to joe public at the show was low grade and over priced and a little naughty but speaking from a self employed point of view and credit where it is due the mark up must have been good.The gullible will make you rich.
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What wrong message? That the council is willing to support one of the biggest and longest running events held in Shrewsbury.
Would the whining muppets please crawl back under the rock they call home?!
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I think you miss the point of this article. It’s the fact that Shropshire Council ‘fat cats’ received a champagne all day reception at the show that irks when workers are losing their jobs and residents losing their services.
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Point not missed.
Generally anybody trying to raise funds will provide some incentive to donors, in this case “champagne” and food (I highly doubt the ‘pooh was the real deal) and tickets to the show.
Was the ‘pooh and nibbles donated to the SHS? Who knows? Would that change the whining or are you just put out that someone is getting something you’re not?
Anyway, big deal! It is happening everywhere everyday – back-scratching is a way of life. Do you honestly believe the local Union Rep isn’t bought a pint or two and a pasty every now and then?
And describing anyone as a “fat cat” is pretty sad. In the big scheme of things they are pretty skinny cats.
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Perhaps Keith Barrow and chums should donate the value of Shrewsbury Flower show entry plus any complimentary refreshments that they enjoyed to help pay for some of the services that they are cutting.
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The Council makes it’s staff adhere to pretty stict rules when gifts and hospitality is concerned. But the managers are seemingly exempt it seems. And at a salary of around £150k worth of public sector money I suspect they could afford to buy their own tickets and ‘pooh, whatever the quality.
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If they say they spend the money because they do alot for charity, There are many other events that do alot for charity, will they help them with such amount, I doubt it!!!!
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Some of the benefits of being a sponsor of the Shrewsbury Flower show:
“12 hours of hospitality for 10+ guests including morning refreshments, champagne lunch reception, afternoon tea and evening pre-firework meal and drinks.”
We’re sharing your pain, Keith
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AHHH can go one better than that they should take a leaf out of royal ascots book ,had a gift of 2 days full hospitality at royal ascot this year which included 12 hour hospitality, free bar all day, free champagne 5 course dinner and afternoon tea, plus free parking and grandstand viewing, love this looking after the punters.
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Is the champagne VIP treatment one of the Horticultural Society’s genuine charitable causes? How is cutting the wages of council staff, then giving them to the charity chosen by the council chiefs fair? Isn’t it for staff to say how they would like to make their charitable donations from wages, not Mr Barrow?!
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Has anyone had the hedgerows cut near them yet that are the responsibility of the council? I have noticed that in previous years, they are done just before the Flower Show (presumably to make the town look nice) but not this year. Have funds been redirected elsewhere?
Note to council: I went running the other night (that is unusual in itself) and was slashed across the face by an over-grown hedgerow that i ran into (funny i know, but it could have been worse althoigh preventable). Is there funds for basic maintenance – jobs before hedgerows though.
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Try cycling. Many cyclepaths now have low overhanging trees which you have to duck swerve to avoid and paths have been narrowed by nettles
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Once again the leaders of shropshire council have shown the contempt that they have for the council tax payers and the employees of shropshire council,Boys jollies in bournemouth,
I pads and now £28,000 on champagne and god knows what else in the hospitality marquee, shame on you all its a pity there isnt an election very soon.
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“We’ve got £15k. What do you reckon; flower show or care worker”?
“Let’s toss a coin. Heads it’s the flower show, tails it’s a care worker”.
.
.
“Tails”.
“Fair enough. That champagne does sound nice though”.
“Sod it, yeah… heads”.
Seriously though, it’s investment in tourism and makes its way back to the coffers by various other means. A couple of glasses of cheap bubbly hardly count as living it up at the taxpayers’ expense.
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Council’s have budgets for supporting and promoting the economy of Shropshire £28,000 to support one of the three major events that draw consumers to Shrewsbury (the flower show, the agricultural show and the folk festival) is a drop in the ocean.Compare that to the millions that Edinburgh spends to support the Festival and hogmanay celebrations and what other Councils spend on their local events, this is small beer.
As the conservative party bans Champagne at their conference to avoid inappropriate images, I think the Councillors should have stuck to a soft drink.
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what a rediculously unncessary expenditure, what are they some massive corporation trying to advertise something? No they are a monopoly they dont need to advertise, we have to use them!
may be when times were good its ok but when jobs are being lost and schools closed its just disgusting
i bet they get a ticket out of it though dont they??
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They have a duty to support the economy and promote development. That is why Shropshire Council has an economic development team. The sponsorship is not the issue, it is the Councillors enjoying the benefits that is the problem. Perhaps in future years, the perks should be offered to staff who have gone the extra mile. Oh, the Council’s demolished staff morale and good will and no one feels like excelling as there are no enducements!
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i suppose they did it in the public interest though hey? Or wait, no – did cllr. barrow get free tickets to the show out of it, oh yes look here on his declaration of interests, on top of the free tickets to twickenham and dinner at Loch Fyne he also got tickets to… The Flower Show… see here
http://shropsdemserv.web.coop/live/images/cme_resources/Public/Declarations%20of%20Interest/BARROW-Keith.pdf
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Of course Mr James fails to mention the £80,000 a year his office costs the taxpayer, all animals are equal but some are more equal than others, brother.
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Strange how the Unison chap is all too quick to go running to the media when he wants to dish the dirt yet seems strangely absent when questions are asked of his cost to the public purse, he’s probably having champers and nibbles at Kremlin Towers so his hands are full.
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Are you two councillors?
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No I’m just enjoying the facility of free speech like you are.
The closest thing that I am to a councillor is being the unfortunate recipient of one of their drivel newsletters.
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Vote for me!
As if……
Come to think of it, it would be an easy way of supplementing my meagre income
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another pr distaster for the council
the are trying to defend the indefensible and they just dont get it do they?
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What on earth is a distaster ? Somebody that doesn’t like the flavour of things or somebody that doesn’t like tasting things?
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ha ha
let them eat cake
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yeah NETWORKING / NOT Working – whatever way you look at it
who cares?
its not there money right?
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Does the Flower Show actually need this sort of support? It is run by an asset rich organisation, and with some 100,000 visitors over 2 years they could have charges a few pence extra on the gate with no adverse reaction from customers.So why the need for any intervention with public money? There are more dereving cases out there. Some one should question the council priorities. Maybe there is one Councillor who can see the madness?
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these councillors have to declare all hospitality so if you check the records you will see that free entertainment, champagne and dinner is VERY common for the councillors meeting businessmen who for example need planning and grants from public money as they say its just networking, contact making etc, its just ‘business’
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Headline figures for 2010 for SHS
Period End Sep 2010
Total Income £0.988m
Total Expenditure £0.953m
Total Funds £5.603m
Governance as% of Total expenditure 1.15%
Investment income £0.17m
Charitable Activity £0.818m
Investment Costs £0.013m
Costs of Charitable Activities £0.929m
Governance £0.011m
What is the council doing chipping in £13K when SHS has £5.6m in the bank! It may be a charity, but at £24 a ticket, and this level of funds, it does seem to display a strong commercial ethic along with it’s flowers!
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moneys too tight to mention?
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Unless like Mr James you are simply red
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Hard to get impassioned either way over this but I would just say that the hapless old council are damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
As one or two have said, while having the odd drop of bubbly might not be great judgement, neither should it be a stick to beat them with – not when they’ve put some support behind an event which has been putting Shrewsbury on the map for years.
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Yeh, you’re right. When we don’t have the money to send the mobile library to visit old people’s homes, sponsoring an already high profile and popular event which is already well and truly on the map is a great use of resources. Hip hip hooray for the Council.
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Point taken, all I’m really saying is councils will get hammered whatever they do or don’t do. There are plenty who want them to put sth (money, presence etc) into an event which Shropshire is proud of.
Part of the job, like it or not, is PR. If the council had no presence at these things, it would just get accused of being ‘faceless’, ‘anonymous’ and the rest of it, whatever other good it was
doing.
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just like most of the staff and councillors there this is a total waste of my money
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i think i would rather have the Wakeman school open or bring back skips for rubbish on the weekends or any of the other hundreds of things they have cut
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I am with James.
This council, and any that has been before it or will come after it, will always provide the whining public an opportunity to abuse and deride them.
Take the iPads, conference hotel rooms, imitation champagne, and any other percieved money wasting boondoggles in a given year, add them up and see how many services you can permanently keep in place with the wasted money.
In the big scheme of things it doesn’t amount to much money at all.
Matbe the time has come for local business and “fat cats” (sarcasm intended) to step up and be charitable. Maybe provide the occasional skip that the council will allow to be dumped FOC at a muni landfill.
Stop complaining and figure out some solutions.
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Tyrone
Its not about the ammount – can you not see this ???
Why can it ever be right for one councillor or manager have even a sip of champagne while they are reducing workers pay???
If cuts have to be made make them on things like this first and then, if the workforce has to suffer it might just be understandable.
Let them eat cake!
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It might not make millions Tyrone but it will make tens of thousands. And that would pay for care workers to visit elderly people once a week who might otherwise not see anyone else. It would pay for hundreds of people to have adaptations made to their homes so that they can stay at home rather than be hospitalised.
And just because the sums ‘wasted’ (as you describe it) wouldn’t permamntly support cut services, surely doesn’t make it ok to squander.
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that the council will allow to be dumped “FOC” at a landfill ???
which bit of that sentance doesnt add up???
the bit where free of charge costs the council and thus all of us a fortune in every rising landfill costs….
good idea then (NOT!!!)
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another waste of money from the council who bought you that concrete snail by the river and wants to dump an incinerator on harlescott, the who lot of them are out of touch and over paid, we need to kick them out at the next election please
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those councillors are just completely out of line, they are an embarresment to the demoncracy by grandparents fought for, they are a stain on democracy they wouldnt look out of place in berlosconis italy
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i just hope they learn and start governing like elected people not dicatators, they should be setting an example, they are all so rich already they could do the role for free if they wanted to show some real leadership that would give them real kudos and carte blanche to do what they liked too!?!?
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Just wrong. Just plain wrong. Yet they don’t get it. Shropshire – please vote this shower out next time. They deserve it. In fact, both Barrow and Ryley should have a vote of no confidence!
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sack the councillors at the next election!!
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