PR Week

Edinburgh City Council is embroiled in a row over its decision to hire Pagoda PR to support its housing stock transfer.

Gordon Beattie, CEO of Beattie Media, which was in the running for the account, said that because Pagoda listed housing regulator Communities Scotland as a client, the hire raised "concerns over conflict of interest". He has written to communities minister Malcolm Chisholm, urging him to investigate the matter.

But Beattie has insisted there was still a problem because the agency was listing the regulator as a client on its website.

Coldwell said: "It is disappointing that Beattie Media feels the need to respond in this way."

He added that it was the agency's standard practice to keep clients listed on the site for around a year after work has finished.

A Scottish Executive spokesman said it was unlikely the minister would take any action.

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Beattie's outburst may be a sign of frustration at failing to secure yet another Scottish public sector contract, which have been a key part of Beatie Media's business in the past. Recently it was revealed that Beattie were unsuccessful in their application to the Scottish Executive procurement tender for public relations and advertising services.

Nor is this the first time that Beattie Media have presented themselves as guardians of probity and ethics in Scottish public life. Shortly before being at the eip-centre of the Lobbygate scandal in 1999 / 2000 Gordon Beattie wrote to then First Minister Donald Dewar complaining that the proposed voluntary code for lobbyists at the Scottish Parliament was not strict enough. We await the fall-out of this latest venture in standards in public life with great interest.

See also SHARON WARD 'Fighting still rages on the homes front' Thu 3 Feb 2005.