Jenny Dawe orders rethink on workers' stay at the five-star Old Course Hotel

Published on Thursday 4 March 2010 09:05

CITY leader Jenny Dawe has ordered a rethink on the council's decision to pay for around a dozen staff to go on a "jolly" to one of Scotland's top hotels.

The move has been prompted by the Evening News' revelation yesterday that staff attending an awards ceremony in St Andrews tonight have been booked into the five-star Old Course Hotel at a cost of around 2,000 to taxpayers.

The council has been shortlisted for three prizes at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) awards, which are being held elsewhere in the town.

Councillor Dawe has now demanded to know why the spending was approved in the first place.

She said: "Following the news that around a dozen Edinburgh council staff are attending the Cosla awards in St Andrews and most are staying overnight in a very expensive hotel, I have asked the chief executive to explain how this came to be approved.

"It is not my job to micro- manage operational decisions but I believe that, particularly in these times, we should seriously consider not attending events like this, and if we do, make sure there is minimum staff time and expense spent on them.

"In fact, I and other councillors are not attending the Cosla conference and awards event on the grounds of cost."

She added: "If the council is recognised with an award I will be among the first to congratulate the hard-working staff who deserve praise, but we need to reconsider how we participate in ceremonies such as these."

Labour leader Andrew Burns said: "It's not good enough for Cllr Dawe to instruct the chief executive to look into it after the event.

"She should be putting down clear guidelines to the senior management team to ensure this kind of thing never happens and take more leadership on this issue to stamp this type of activity out, particularly in these difficult financial circumstances."

Staff from the council's health and social care, children and families, and services for communities departments are all due to attend tonight's award ceremony at the Fairmont Hotel before spending the night at the Old Course, which was voted the world's most exclusive hotel in 2009 by Forbes magazine.

Rooms range from 165 per night to suites costing 960 at this time of year, with the council paying for some of the cheapest rooms.

One of the council's nominations is for the Re-ablement scheme, which sees home helps do less for clients to encourage them to be more independent.

A scheme to combat youth offending via early intervention is also up for an award, along with the Job Education and Training programme, which helps youths at risk of leaving school without a job get a head start in their career.

Yesterday, council bosses defended their decision to put staff up in the hotel by saying they had worked hard on the projects nominated for awards, which have "saved the council millions of pounds".