Berkeley Group's sponsorship of Ealing Council events
Dear Ealing Borough Council,
The Leader of Ealing Council, Peter Mason, wrote and published an open letter (https://www.ealing.gov.uk/download/downl...) to Angela Fonso and local campaign group CASH (Clean Air for Southall and Hayes) dated 12 July 2021, in which Cllr Mason pledged that "[t]he Council will not take any further sponsorship from Berkeley Group."
Last week, the new Mayor of Ealing tweeted (https://twitter.com/MayorofEaling/status...) to thank Berkeley Group for their sponsorship of an event the Mayor had organised and hosted.
Can you tell me:
1) the monetary value of "sponsorship" Ealing Council (councillors, officers, Mayor) has accepted from Berkeley Group since Cllr Mason's letter of 12 July 2021, and for which events?
2) the Ealing Council policy for councillors, officers, Mayor, for accepting sponsorship, hospitality and gifts from developers, and to ensure that the Council will not take any further sponsorship from Berkeley Group, as Cllr Mason pledged two years ago?
3) the action Ealing Council will take to prevent councillors, officers, Mayor accepting sponsorship, hospitality and gifts from developers in future, and publicly returning sponsorship already received from Berkeley Group in order to uphold Cllr Mason's public pledge?
Note that Berkeley Group operates with many different aliases, so please include "Berkeley Homes", "Berkeley", "Berkeley Foundation", "St James", "St William", "St George", "Southall Waterside", "The Green Quarter", "Jags Sanghera" in any search queries.
Yours faithfully,
David Marsden
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Stuart O’Brien (he/him)
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( 020 8825 8367
+ London Borough of Ealing, Perceval House 3/NE, 14-16 Uxbridge Road,
Ealing, London, W5 2HL
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From: David Marsden <[FOI #1000452 email]>
Sent: Thursday, July 6, 2023 12:27 PM
To: foirequests <[Ealing Borough Council request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Berkeley Group's sponsorship of
Ealing Council events
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Dear Ealing Borough Council,
The Leader of Ealing Council, Peter Mason, wrote and published an open
letter
([3]https://www.ealing.gov.uk/download/downl...)
to Angela Fonso and local campaign group CASH (Clean Air for Southall and
Hayes) dated 12 July 2021, in which Cllr Mason pledged that "[t]he Council
will not take any further sponsorship from Berkeley Group."
Last week, the new Mayor of Ealing tweeted
([4]https://twitter.com/MayorofEaling/status...) to thank
Berkeley Group for their sponsorship of an event the Mayor had organised
and hosted.
Can you tell me:
1) the monetary value of "sponsorship" Ealing Council (councillors,
officers, Mayor) has accepted from Berkeley Group since Cllr Mason's
letter of 12 July 2021, and for which events?
2) the Ealing Council policy for councillors, officers, Mayor, for
accepting sponsorship, hospitality and gifts from developers, and to
ensure that the Council will not take any further sponsorship from
Berkeley Group, as Cllr Mason pledged two years ago?
3) the action Ealing Council will take to prevent councillors, officers,
Mayor accepting sponsorship, hospitality and gifts from developers in
future, and publicly returning sponsorship already received from Berkeley
Group in order to uphold Cllr Mason's public pledge?
Note that Berkeley Group operates with many different aliases, so please
include "Berkeley Homes", "Berkeley", "Berkeley Foundation", "St James",
"St William", "St George", "Southall Waterside", "The Green Quarter",
"Jags Sanghera" in any search queries.
Yours faithfully,
David Marsden
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Kind Regards
Kam Ubhi (she/her)
Information Governance Officer
020 8825 8367
London Borough of Ealing, Perceval House 5/SE/12, 14-16 Uxbridge Road,
Ealing, London, W5 2HL
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Dear Ealing Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Ealing Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Berkeley Group's sponsorship of Ealing Council events'.
In the Mayor's public tweet, he quite clearly states that he "thanks Berkeley Group for sponsoring" the event. That can only mean, to any reasonable person, that Berkeley Group offered him the money, and he accepted it. If that is not the case, then the Mayor needs to retract his public statement of thanks and clarify that he refused the offer of sponsorship.
Either way, it seems entirely disingenuous to publicly thank Berkeley Group for sponsoring an event that they haven't in fact sponsored. In effect, the Mayor is giving a prohibited sponsor Berkeley Group free good publicity for sponsoring an event they didn't sponsor.
The code of conduct for councillors states (13.): All excessive gifts or hospitality should be refused or returned. Any gifts or hospitality with a value exceeding £25 should in any event be declared to the
Director of Legal and Democratic Services, who will enter it onto your register of interests.
This offer of sponsorship from Berkeley Group does not appear on the Mayor's register of interests.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/b...
Yours faithfully,
David Marsden
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