Questions asked over thousands spent on council awards ceremony

Thomas McFadden of Milton of Campsie says that while he approves of East Dunbartonshire Council staff being rewarded for their hard work he doesn’t think that an awards ceremony is the best way to do it.

He says they should be paid a bonus instead.

Mr McFadden said: “I’m all for staff being rewarded for their work but I’m sure they’d rather get a bonus.

“When there’s such a lack of funds across East Dunbartonshire you have to ask is this the best way to be spending thousands of pounds?

“The employees don’t really benefit from an awards ceremony it’s just a good old jolly for the management and a way to blow their own trumpet.

“I think it’s a disgrace.”

East Dunbartonshire STARs celebration cost £5,720 in total, this is broken down into printing costs of £170 for leaflets and certificates, a ceremony at St Ninian’s High School - catering £1500, tables, chair hire and decorations £700.

Individual recipients receive £100 to be spent locally in East Dunbartonshire and teams get £100 per team member up to a maximum of £1,000 to be split across the team.

The total for awards this year was estimated to be between £700 to £2,300 depending on winning teams.

Ann Davie, depute chief executive for education, people & business said: “Our employees are our greatest asset and it is absolutely right that we recognise their efforts through our STARS Awards. We know how hard our

employees work and in challenging times when £50 million has been cut from our budget in recent years, we feel the modest sum to host a celebration of thanks and reward our winners is worthwhile. Our winners must spend their award locally to support the local economy and both colleagues in the council and our local population have the opportunity to nominate.”