Trouble with Council

[liam1]

Hi just had some trouble with rugby borough council and a application for works in a conservation area, i applied and they went out to view the trees we were due to work on and they offered my customer who had accepted my quote a quote themselves!! which didn't realise they could do being a council which he agreed to and they undercut me and got the job. should councils be allowed to do this?

[AHPP]

I say it shouldn't be legal.

 

Couldn't say for sure whether it is legal but there have been cases very similar to this where councils have acted out of remit and been told off for it (Attorney General v Fulham Corporation [1921] 1 Ch 440).

 

I imagine your MP would be interested.

Edited December 6, 2014 by AHPP

[htb]

Not a very nice thing to do, similar to other thread about contacting applicants for TPO and conservation area works once they are on the public lists. You do the leg work for no return. It sucks

[liam1]

contacted my client to see how the site visit went and he said they had invited there private work quoter over to give a quote i was fuming to say the least as i had given him a very competitive price for the work, only to find out councils cannot make profit so they must of come in with a stupid price which probably made me look like a rip off merchant haha.

[AHPP]

Also worth mentioning to any professional associations you're a member of. Or indeed not a member of. Arb Assoc would probably be interested to know about this. Federation of Small Businesses may be too.

In fact, tell everyone. Get onto the papers first thing Monday morning. Hardly fair that taxpayers' money (including yours) is funding subsidised competition and doing you out of work.

 

 

Of course contact the council first, just in case it was all a terrible misunderstanding...

Edited December 6, 2014 by AHPP

[Philip Anderson]

Hi just had some trouble with rugby borough council and a application for works in a conservation area, i applied and they went out to view the trees we were due to work on and they offered my customer who had accepted my quote a quote themselves!! which didn't realise they could do being a council which he agreed to and they undercut me and got the job. should councils be allowed to do this?

 

No they crossed the line between being the regulatory authority and council direct works team ,they had no right to take their contractor to the site visit unless your client asked them to .proving it and getting something done about it will be difficult MP good bet or local authority regulator.

It's a cheap desperate thing to do on their part.

[Gary Prentice]

Ask for an explanation from the Head of planning, the head of the council and every local councillor you can get an email address for. Be persistent or you'll probably just be ignored

[thtc]

It's down to the individual concerned from the council. I had a similar problem and my argument was and I admit it was pretty full on was that the officer concerned is not representing the client but the council. And if he is advising using a specific contractor then he is representing the contractor and not the council. I took the council to court over the matter I did not win but the tree surveyor was fired. Jobs for the boys etc. Only get the council involved once the client has signed for you to do the work

[roseyweb]

The next town from me does something similar. They use a consultant as there tree officer who's office is part of a local AAC contractor.

Sure there's no conflict of intrest there at all.

[BobG]

I'd submit a freedom of information request to the council.