A DISAPPOINTED councillor has hit out at “bureaucratic nonsense” after he was told that his annual fundraising project with a major supermarket will not be able to go ahead.
Every year since it was established in 1988, Cllr Alan Quinn, has sold red noses for Comic Relief at his work place and other locations.
Over the years he has raised hundreds of pounds and estimates that in 2017 alone he made £1,500 for the biennial event’s relief efforts around the world.
In previous years Cllr Quinn has partnered with the Sainsbury’s in Heaton Park Road to distribute the red noses sold by the supermarket on an agreed sell or return basis.
However this year when arranging his fundraising efforts, ahead of Comic Relief on March 15, he says he was told that Sainsbury’s will not be able to collaborate with him due to a “corporate decision”.
Cllr Quinn, who represents the Sedgley ward, said he found the decision “unbelievable”, adding: “If I can’t sell these red noses, and they are raising money for children, who suffers?
“We are supposed to be fundraising but then on the other hand they are stopping people like me from raising a lot of money.”
He added: “The people where I work they expect this and people have still got the noses that I sold from years ago all around the building.”
A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: “We’re proud to be supporting Red Nose Day for our twentieth year. We have explained to Mr Quinn that fundraisers can visit the Comic Relief online shop to buy larger quantities of merchandise and apologised for any confusion we may have caused.”
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