A top Reading councillor has defended herself after being accused of a ‘conflict of interest’ on the re-installation of the Cartwheeling Boys sculpture.
The Cartwheeling Boys sculpture was a gift from Reading’s twin town of Düsseldorf in Germany in 1981.
Initially installed to the rear of Broad Street Mall in San Francisco Libre Walk, the sculpture was damaged by Storm Eunice in February 2022.
The sculpture was recently installed at the Reading Borough Council offices in Bridge Street.
One of those companies involved The Affable Design Company, which is run by married couple Edmund and Adele Barnett-Ward.
Three payments were made by the council to the company in 2024-25, amounting to a total of £10,644.
This has led to an accusation of a conflict of interest as Adele Barnett-Ward is the lead councillor for leisure and culture.
Answering that accusation in an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), she said: “I removed myself from all discussion about the work on the Cartwheeling Boys, I’m a partner in the company; I don’t work on it. The damage was done, and the pieces were missing.
“I know it was blown down and it was smashed, and some pieces couldn’t be recovered.
“The Düsseldorf Association was involved in getting it back together – I wasn’t involved in it at all. They were looking for a digital sculpture, the only sculptor was Affable.
“When the company was mentioned, I said I cannot be involved in any way.
“When the council does procurement, they are looking for specialist skills, and they want to use local small businesses, but as I’m involved in Affable, I didn’t want to have any involvement with it, and nothing to do with it. I didn’t get reports on it into my briefings.
“The council always tries to use local businesses, and knew my husband has a business that does that, but I needed to have nothing to do with that process. This is why we have the declaration of interests process.”
On her involvement with the company, cllr Barnett-Ward (Labour, Thames) said: “When we set it up, I used to work in the back office, I haven’t drawn a salary for years, we didn’t even discuss it – I don’t know how or when we got paid, I don’t know anything about those arrangements. We made sure it was completely separate.
“I believe the heritage officer was working on it, but they didn’t report to me.
“I didn’t instruct Affable, and I wasn’t given any update from the council, and I didn’t discuss it with my husband to make sure it was all above board.
“It’s on my register of interests, so I can have nothing to do with it; when I knew from the start that Affable was being considered, I made sure I did my due diligence by my non-involvement.”
Explaining the conflicts of interest procedure, she said: “Sometimes you have to mention it, and that’s it; sometimes you have to leave the room – I had to do the equivalent of leaving the room.
“I know it didn’t come through me. I did flag that I had an interest and removed myself from it, so it’s all above board.”
A council spokesperson has confirmed that cllr Barnett-Ward had no involvement in the process.
“The council was fully aware of the ownership of the company, and this was treated as a known potential conflict of interest from the outset. The relevant councillor additionally notified officers herself.
“Assessment and management of conflicts of interest is a standard part of the Council’s procurement process. As such, the councillor took absolutely no part in the selection, approval, or management of this work, nor in any related decision‑making.
“Following market research and engagement with various specialist suppliers, Affable was identified as the only supplier able to meet the council’s specific requirements and was therefore awarded the work. The value of the work was validated by the council’s property & assets team prior to award to ensure best value, and we would emphasise that requirements and terms were defined by council officers only, with no councillor involvement.
“Multiple payments are often made against a single contract, most commonly where specific activities or outputs must be completed before invoices are approved for payment. In this instance, all payments were made within the scope and value agreed under the single contract.”
Cllr Barnett-Ward is standing to keep her Thames seat for the Labour Party in the council elections on Thursday, May 7.
The seat is also being contested by Christopher Burden for the Liberal Democrats, David Clark for the Green Party, James Halls for the Social Democratic Party, Alexander Kelly for Reform UK and Jaykumar
Sanatbhai for the Conservatives.
The LDRS has approached each party standing in the Thames ward for comment.
