LABOUR cabinet member Alex Gallagher has defended the council's decision to award a contract for heating and ventilation maintenance in council buildings such as Largs Campus and Vikingar! to a company outside of North Ayrshire.

North Ayrshire Council gave the work to BAM FM, which has offices in England, sparking anger about the decision.

The company also have an office based in Stepps in Glasgow but local politicians still feel the contact could have been awarded to a firm closer to home.

Conservative Tom Marshall criticised the decision to award the contract to a company outwith North Ayrshire, saying it should have been split up to allow smaller local businesses to have a chance of benefitting.

However, Cllr Gallagher responded: "The documentation shows that there were 24 expressions of interest in the contract - five companies made formal bids

"None of the formal bids was from a North Ayrshire or Ayrshire company

"The contract was awarded on a valuation of 60 per cent price and 40 per cent quality and went to the company with the best score on that basis.

"In these situations, it would depend on whether we had a local bidder or not. We can't just give contracts to local companies because they are local - it is dependent on cost and quality."

Cllr. Gallagher added: "Cllr Marshall has not made any official complaint about this matter and the cabinet papers have been in circulation in recent weeks.

"We are doing our best to source locally where we can."