Day 075 - 17 Jan 95 - Page 07
1 Since that time they have been co-operating with us in a
2 number of programmes.
3
4 Q. I am going to come to those in a little more detail in a
5 moment. You said "early on", do you mean early on in your
6 directorship?
7 A. Yes.
8
9 Q. Can you give us roughly a year when you made that contact?
10 A. 1988.
11
12 Q. Was the President Mr. Paul Preston?
13 A. Yes.
14
15 Q. Before I come to the detail, can I ask you this
16 question -- I ask you two questions: Have you had
17 experience during the last seven years of dealing with
18 businesses which may be thought to generate a certain
19 amount of waste and environment/index.html">litter ---
20 A. Yes.
21
22 Q. -- by way of packaging? Second question: Against that
23 background, how do you rate McDonald's attitudes, policies
24 and practices in relation to the environment/index.html">litter which is generated
25 by their business?
26 A. I would be very satisfied if the other people with whom
27 I have dealings exercised the same interest and concern and
28 practical measures to alleviate environment/index.html">litter.
29
30 Q. Can you tell us, please, what kind of things McDonald's do
31 in co-operation with or in support of the activities of
32 your Group?
33 A. The co-operation and support of McDonald's can,
34 I suppose, be most easily separated out into three areas:
35 First of all, they have been willing to sponsor programmes
36 that we have devised and which we have wished to have
37 sponsored because they needed additional financial
38 resources from those available to us through the public
39 sector. They have been willing to assist us in broad
40 educational activities, frequently through the medium of
41 their restaurants, and they have been willing to encourage
42 their staff to support campaigns that we have been running
43 where their staff have been located in areas where those
44 campaigns were operated.
45
46 Q. Does McDonald's give your Group any money directly?
47 A. They only provide money to sponsor specific
48 activities. We do not have any financial support from
49 McDonald's for our general activities.
50
51 Q. Does McDonald's, when it helps sponsor one of your events
52 or co-operate with your educational activities, or whatever
53 it may be, get a publicity benefit from its participation?
54 A. Yes.
55
56 Q. Are you content that that should be so?
57 A. Yes, provided -- and this has always been the case --
58 that the nature of the material we produce and the
59 programmes that we develop are controlled by us, and that
60 we are able to ensure that the balance between the