WALTER CRONXITE has uncovered evidence which proves that former Sutton counciller John Drage failed to declare his friendship with Viridor’s Colin Drummond on occasions when public contracts worth billions were being awarded to his friend’s business
John Drage: over the course of five years, forgot to mention he knew Viridor’s CEO
In five years on the committee of the South London Waste Partnership, the then Sutton councillor John Drage was involved in the awarding of four major contracts to Viridor but never made any formal declaration of interest regarding his long-standing personal friendship with Colin Drummond, the chief executive and later chairman of Viridor.
Ultimately, SLWP – of which Croydon is one of the four member boroughs – awarded the Beddington incinerator contract to Viridor, worth £1 billion over 25 years.
The then Councillor Drage, who worked as an international financial policy specialist at the Bank of England, was appointed to represent Sutton Council on SLWP from its inception, in 2007. SLWP’s task was to find best-value for public contracts for its four south London boroughs – Kingston, Merton, Sutton and Croydon – on waste disposal and recycling.
SLWP’s first contracts were awarded to Viridor in March 2008, with a £120-million, 14-year household recyclables deal. Over the next few years, Viridor was awarded three out of four SLWP contracts – and the other supplier, EWC, was bought out a few years ago. Viridor is now the only service supplier to the SLWP.
Drage continued to attend meetings of SLWP until Viridor was given preferred bidder status for the £1 billion incinerator deal, in September 2011. Drage officially left SLWP in 2012.
In all that time, there is no record of Drage ever formally declaring to SLWP his 40-year friendship with Drummond.
