Bottled Water cuts sprung on local company

Leader of Rochdale Council, Councillor Alan Taylor has condemned Councillor Ashley Dearnley as ‘an opportunist with no bottle’ – and has expressed his surprise that Councillor Dearnley didn’t contact Wardle Spring Water, a local company in Councillor Dearnley’s Ward of Wardle and West Littleborough, to tell them of his suggestion for Rochdale Council to save £30,000 by replacing bottled water with tap water.  

Councillor Taylor said, “I am aware that this Council needs to look seriously at reducing overheads.  However, any reduction needs to be done in consultation with anyone who will be affected.  I was shocked to see Councillor Dearnley bringing this up without consultation with Wardle Spring Water.  Only last year the Council signed a 3 year contract with the company and scrapping this contract will send the wrong message to Rochdale people, especially when you consider that the first Wardle Spring Water knew about their Ward Councillors plan was to read this in the paper.  This is not the way this Council operates and quite rightly. 

"Councillor Dearnley is experienced enough and needs to learn that coming out with opportunist sound bites affects people lives.  Scrapping this Contract would lead to job losses and for Councillor Dearnley to say "no-one would miss out if Councillors opted for the water cut" is inaccurate and he should apologise to Wardle Spring Water. 

"To be photographed with a bottle of Buxton Spring Water is even more galling and I hope he can make amends with his local company. 

"Lib Dem run Liverpool Council have recently been in the press doing the same thing, to just lift their story and apply it to Rochdale is wrong and opportunist at best.” 

Councillor Dearnley responded by saying: "The situation is whether or not we should allow council staff to have free water. We cannot make cuts to the voluntary sector and expect the council to pay out £30K on water. If there is a 3 year agreement then we must honour that but we could look at charging staff for water or look at selling Wardle bottled water instead of Abbeywell bottled water.

"The Lib Dems must decide their priorities, whether £30K of council taxpayers money should be spent on water or on our volunteer organisations and their staff. Tough decisions must be made, they cannot shy away from reality.

"The Conservative view is that the council tax payer expects us to put the interests of services provided first."