Council set to ditch Fairtrade plans (From Bucks Free Press)

Wycombe Town Committee argue over Fairtrade ideals

10:14pm Tuesday 27th January 2009 in Search By Alex Hayes

MONEY-SAVING measures including proposals to scrap a Fairtrade scheme dominated the agenda at the Wycombe Town Committee tonight.

Councillors were set to recommend the cabinet passes a resolution to use more Fairtrade products as part of a drive to get Fairtrade status for High Wycombe.

However, Councillor Lesley Clark, the leader of Wycombe District Council, tabled a surprise motion which would see the council stop the drinks and snacks at meeting.

The fairly traded products ensure the people who produce them in the third world get a fair price for their work, although Tory councillors Alan Hill and Tony Green questioned whether it always benefitted people in those countries.

Cllr Clark said: “I do not think we should be spending more money on things like this which are really a whim, especially in a time when people are losing their jobs.”

The meeting was told the extra cost of providing Fairtrade tea and coffee is £648, as opposed to £437 for regular products.

Lib Dem Cllr Julia Wassell, who proposed the scheme for the council, offered to cover the extra cost to encourage her colleagues to take up the offer.

She said: “This is an idea which has been passed by numerous other committees on this council.

“I have been buying Fairtrade products for some time and my shopping bills have remained the same, so there is obviously a discrepancy in the way the council is buying its products.

“If we can’t encourage local people to work towards something positive like this then what are we here for?”

In a vote all the Tory members on the committee backed Cllr Clark’s proposal to ask cabinet to reconsider the idea at their next meeting, which she will chair.

What do you think of Fairtrade? Should the council adopt it? Leave your comments below.