The leader of Conservative-run Harrogate Borough Council has attacked the local Liberal Democrats for using a firm in Dundee to print a leaflet urging people to ‘buy local’.
Richard Cooper criticised the move in a post on the Community News website run by Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough. Cllr Cooper is employed by Mr Jones as his office manager,
It is a sign that the North Yorkshire Council election campaign is hotting up ahead of the vote on May 5.
Mr Cooper said it was “critical that we use local businesses where we can”.
According to the post, other local Liberal Democrat literature has been printed in York and Chesterfield.
Cllr Cooper said:
“It is critical that we use local businesses where we can and there are a lot of good local printers who would have wanted this business.
“It really is strange to call on others to ‘buy local’ when you are buying from York, Chesterfield and even Dundee!”.
Cllr Cooper, who has said he will not be seeking re-election next month, also said the leaflet’s ‘greener’ agenda was at odds with its creation.
Carbon footprint
He said:
“Even if they didn’t want to use local printers for some reason was it really necessary to go 60-odd miles north of Edinburgh? The carbon footprint of their literature is enormous.
“When you tell people you want to ‘buy local’ and ‘be greener’ you have to match your actions with words.”
The post said all election campaign leaflets published by Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservatives were printed in Harrogate and Mr Jones’ annual reports were printed in Knaresborough.
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Pat Marsh, leader of Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrats, told the Stray Ferret that the Conservatives “should really have bigger things to be worrying about than where we print our material”, such as spiralling energy bills, the fallout of war in Ukraine and “businesses feeling the bite of Brexit”.
Cllr Marsh added:
“This is a particularly strange attack from the Conservatives who, during the pandemic, took £10,000 of grants to pay for their office.
“We think these grants should have been used to support local businesses, not on political party campaigns. Since they print a lot of their material at their office many people will be questioning whether their taxpayers money is helping to fund Conservative election leaflets.”
She added that the Liberal Democrats’ process for using outside suppliers was to “try and get the best value for money”, which was “something Conservative-run Harrogate council could learn from”, adding:
“They spent £5,000 on a giant snow globe that was displayed in London for two days over Christmas and £700 on social media influencers. This is on top of the £13 million they wasted on a council office for a council their own government is abolishing.”
