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Firm snubbed over Olympics
Olympicram Richard Cooper, MD of street furniture company Wybone
A SOUTH Yorkshire company’s bid to provide street furniture for a London Olympics contract has been rejected – because the firm is too far from the capital.
Wybone, based at Platts Common Industrial Estate, in Hoyland, Barnsley, applied to make litter bins and bicycle racks for developer Balfour Beatty as part of the revamp of the Olympic park once the games are over.
But bosses were stunned to receive a reply from agency CompeteFor, which handles applications from companies wanting to work on the Olympics, saying they had ‘dropped points’ against rival bidders because the firm was too ‘far away’. They said the firm didn’t meet ‘local and responsible procurement aims’ adding to the carbon footprint.
The Family-run firm was also marked down because it had not worked on the Olympic park before.
Helen Miles, business development manager at Wybone, said: “We applied because we have manufactured street furniture for 40 years.
“We were all disappointed with the reply – there are other companies around here which are working on the Olympics.”
Richard Cooper the company MD added: “How can companies further than 35 miles away from London compete?
“It seems short-sighted for the selection criteria to be location when in real terms the carbon footprint for the whole life cycle of the product should be taken into account.”
Furious Barnsley East Labour MP Michael Dugher has complained to chairman of the 2012 Olympics’ organising committee, Sebastian Coe.
He said: “This is just not good enough. Particularly at this difficult economic time, small to medium companies across the whole country, should be able to benefit from the Olympics.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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