Dundee has been dragged into an English local election bust-up over leaflet printing.
The leader of Conservative-run Harrogate Borough Council has slammed the local Lib Dems for using a firm in Dundee - over 250 miles away - to print a leaflet urging people to ‘buy local’.
Richard Cooper criticised the move in a post on the website of his boss, Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.
Cllr Cooper is employed by Mr Jones as his office manager.
Writing on the communitynews.network site, 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!”
And he added: “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.”
Cllr Cooper was quick to reiterate that all election campaign leaflets published by Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservatives were printed in Harrogate while Mr Jones’ annual reports were printed in Knaresborough.
Councillor Pat Marsh, the local Lib Dem leader, responded to the criticism.
Speaking to the local Stray Ferret news website she said the Tory criticism was 'hypocrisy of the highest order' and insisted her team used outside suppliers to “try and get the best value for money.”
And she added: “They (the Conservatives) 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.”
**Don't miss the latest headlines from around Dundee and Tayside. Sign up to our newsletters here .
And did you know Dundee Live is on Facebook? Head over to our page to give us a like and a share .
