West Berkshire’s Conservative opposition group leader has accused the council’s procurement portfolio holder of behaving “unseemly” after raising concerns about how contract awards are overseen.
Ross Mackinnon challenged Vicky Poole at Thursday’s executive committee meeting after revealing she appears in a video promoting her role to clients of her public sector procurement business. Ms Poole offers advice and bid-writing services for £650 a day to businesses seeking council contracts.
“I would want the residents to know these contracts are awarded without fear or favour or undue influence,” said Mr Mackinnon. “Do you see a potential conflict of interest when you are using videos of you being appointed to this commissioning portfolio in a bid to get business for your own business advising people on how to bid for public sector contracts?
“And how would you think that a business who had lost out to a business you had advised at a price of £650 a day for writing their bid would feel if the business you had advised won the bid? Doesn’t that stink a little bit?”
Council leader Jeff Brooks intervened before Ms Poole answered, later saying Mr Mackinnon’s inference was “unseemly”.
Sarah Clarke, the council’s monitoring officer, said: “All members of the council are subject to the code of conduct that sets out clear requirements. It is for individual members to consider whether they are conflicted in any matter and to then act accordingly.”
Conflicts of interest are usually declared ahead of meetings. As of 10am on Friday, February 13, 2026 Ms Poole has not recorded any declarations of interest on West Berkshire Council’s website.
Ms Poole told the committee: “So I am actually quite hurt by your comments. It is listed on my website, but I won’t respond to calls about West Berkshire but there are many times we get approached about how to do business with the public sector in general. There are many times I get approached about selling to West Berkshire and I turn down every one of them. I also check my clients for any other links to West Berkshire. There is nothing to hide here.”
Section 4.2.5 of the members code of conduct says members should not use the knowledge they gain as members of the council to benefit their pecuniary interests.
Mr Mackinnon added: “You might want to reflect on using a video of you being appointed as the portfolio holder as a selling point for your business to suppliers bidding for public sector work.”
Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter
