By Democrat reporter
Senior council officials in Glasgow are in talks about a secret private donation to the council.
The details of the donation, the amount, the donor and the intended purpose of the donation are being kept under wraps, according to reports today.
Senior councillors are meeting next week to discuss the proposed donation but will do so in private.
The matter is on the agenda at the City Administration Committee which, as far as we know West Dunbartonshire Council doesn’t have, and, even if it did, they would not tell The Dumbarton Democrat anyway. Their communications team doesn’t speak to us.
We have tried to have that ban lifted on a number of occasions over the past five years through Jackie Baillie MSP and past Provost Douglas McAllister MP.
However, we have been unsuccessful and told that this is a matter for their Communications officer Amanda Graham, pictured left, and that it is for her personally and not a committee to make this decision.
Councillors on the Glasgow committee have been notified of the negotiations “relating to a proposed private donation to the Council”.
It has been revealed the Community Empowerment Team within the Chief Executive’s Department has been in negotiations with an external organisation regarding a proposed private donation to the council.
However, no more details are being disclosed.
A paper circulated to councillors, states: “The external organisation has however requested that this not be subject to publicity and the council has entered into a non-disclosure agreement relating to the discussions.”
In 2018 a guessing game was sparked when it was revealed an anonymous donor had gifted the council a Rolls Royce worth almost a quarter of a million pounds for the use of the Lord Provost, who at the time was Eva Bolander.
The secrecy around the donation caused controversy and eventually the donor was revealed as caramel wafer biscuit entrepreneur Boyd Tunnock.
Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act the council is able to exclude press and public from meetings where certain information is being discussed.
In a paper to councillors it states: “A local authority may by resolution exclude the public from a meeting during consideration of an item of business whenever it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during consideration of that item of business there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.
“The information detailed in the full report is deemed to be such information and can therefore be classed as “exempt” for purposes of Schedule 7A. 2.2 It is therefore recommended that the full report is considered by the City Administration Committee with press and public excluded.”
Amanda Graham has told inquirers that there is no ban on The Democrat. It is just that they will not speak to us directly and that we have to go down the same route as the public does for their questions and complaints.
Otherwise we have to make a Freeedom of Information request which can take hours if not weeks to answer, and is of absolutely no benefit to a reporter writing a story against a deadline.
The ban on The Democrat was imposed after Councillor Jonathan McColl, the SNP leader, in cooperation with the then Chief Executive Officer, Joyce White, who excluded our editor from a meeting in the Church Street headquarters.
It was alleged that Bill Heaney interupted a meeting to ask the then Provost William Hendrie to use his position as chairman to have the sound turned up in order that the press and public could hear what was being discussed.
The current Council chief executive Peter Hessett, pictured right, was seated beside the Provost at that meeting and must know this is untrue since the meeting had finished before Mr Heaney approached the Bench in a civil, respectful manner to make his request.
Mr Heaney said today: “The situation in Glasgow has drawn attention to this Act which provides for situations such as the one which arose when the council initially banned me from my place on a seat allocated to the press.
“I was relegated to the public benches, where it is impossible to see clearly what is happening or to identify the person who is speaking because you can see only the back of their head.
“Because we have withdrawn from covering council meetings and been turned away from some by a council officer standing at the door barring entry, our many readers are being deprived of the benefit of long-standing customs and practices normally associated with relations between the council and the media.
“The Council is not entitled to place restrictions on journalists simply because they are critical of them and the policies they make on behalf of the electorate here. It’s supposed to be a free country.
“It is my opinion, which I am perfectly entitled to express in a democracy, that this matter should be resolved expeditiously by being placed before the appropriate committee of the council in order to rectify this matter.”
Then SNP leader Jonathan McColl, then CEO Joyce White, then Provost Douglas McAllister MP, and Dame Jackie Baillie, Labour MSP for Dumbarton constituency, and editor Bill Heaney.