00:00It's the biggest online retailer in the world and headed by the fourth richest man.
00:06But Amazon is also Kent County Council's biggest supplier,
00:09according to purchase card spending data from the last year.
00:13Looking at the spreadsheets, we can see that Kent County Council
00:16have spent almost £160,000 on Amazon.
00:21That's not to say they've spent that money on themselves,
00:24but rather they've bought products for different departments.
00:27One thing we don't know is exactly what products have been bought using the online retailer,
00:32but we can see what departments have been ordering them
00:35and which departments rely on Amazon the most.
00:39Of the 5,623 items purchased using the online retailer,
00:441,173 of these were under the Children, Young People and Education Directorate.
00:51These might include birthday presents for children in care, for example,
00:55which might have required speedy delivery.
00:58I suppose a lot of people will say, well, why don't we support the local shops?
01:02And yes, we should, but we can.
01:05And we do have a scheme to support local businesses.
01:09But at the same time, I bet you many of them people have Amazon
01:12buy and pull up outside and deliver parcels to their house
01:15while they're going to the high streets and using the shops locally.
01:18But Amazon has also come under fire for poor workplace conditions,
01:22its environmental impact and for evading paying tax in the UK.
01:26Is this something we should be supporting here in Kent?
01:30The leader of the Conservative group, Harry Rayner, says there's an alternative.
01:35Something that I was working on was to try and actually use
01:39one of the subsidiary companies of Kent County Council.
01:42They have something called Kent County Supplies.
01:45Kent County Supplies delivers stationery and other items
01:49to all of Kent County Council's facilities, including schools, for example.
01:54And what I would do in similar circumstances is take the top 20 to 25, 30 items
02:00that are used most on Amazon and actually warehouse them
02:05at Kent County Supplies facilities.
02:08Now, Kent County Council may have given their rationale,
02:11but here in a village outside Maidstone,
02:14what do residents think of where their taxpayer money is going?
02:18Funds of entity in business and, you know, if you need something quickly,
02:22Amazon's provides a service and sometimes you need something the next day,
02:26a lot of the time they're cheaper.
02:28What have they got to do with our community
02:30when all their shareholders are just raking it in, not paying no tax?
02:36But is it worth supporting Kent Suppliers,
02:39even if, in comparison to Amazon, they're nothing but snail mail?
02:43Megan Shaw, for King TV, in Maidstone.
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