Saturday, December 08, 2007

(PART TWO) LEE FORDE'S DOSSIER: THE EVIDENCE IGNORED BY THE COUNCIL ....


Mathew Street ‘Rescue Plan’ abandoned

Lee Forde returned from holiday abroad on August 4th, 2007 to discover that the Mathew Street Festival had been cancelled two days before.

Councillor Bradley then contacted Mr Ford to ask if, even at this late stage, he could rescue the Festival.

The two men met at Councillor Bradley’s home on Sunday, August 5th.

Mr Forde, who was serving his notice with the city council, told Councillor Bradley that he could make no promises, but that he would try to put together a rescue plan, provided that sufficient resources were made available, he was provided with a copy of the Capita Symonds report which had forced the cancellation and as long as there was sufficient support for Mathew Street continuing.

The following day Catherine Garnell, who worked in chief executive Colin Hilton’s office, sent a copy of the CS report to Mr Forde’s private email address.

Mr Forde met Mr Hilton and Councillor Bradley in Mr Hilton’s office in the Municipal Buildings at 10 am on Tuesday August 7th to discuss how to move a rescue plan forward.

Mr Forde, who was later to be blamed by the city council for the cancellation of Mathew Street, was given the go-ahead and arranged for safety experts to travel to Liverpool from London the next day. The intention was to put together a rescue plan which addressed all the issues which had been raised by CS in their report and then submit a revised scheme for Mathew Street to them on Friday August 10th.

Mr Forde’s deputy Eddy Grant, emailed Councillor Bradley to keep him updated on progress.

From: eddy grant
To:
wj.bradley@blueyonder.co.uk
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 4:39 PM
Subject: CS

We are unable to get hold of anyone at Cpaita Symonds. This is because they are very busy. They may also not wish to speak to anyone except the most senior council officials because of the leak of their report, for whatever reason we need to establish what further support can be given

Can someone
1. Invite them to be independent safety officer- this is the best solution and will work for all sides- if they are unable to be directly involved would they be able to evaluaute the "rescue plan" either in full or against the points that they raise in their report

This could be in two stages

First an evalutation of the methodolgy of the recue plan and team
Second a full evaluation of the plan once written

If they are unable to undertake any of this work we have a samll iceberg but LF (Lee Forde, ed) working on alternative, if we can get them to evaluate the methodology we can get this back on track if Police agree to alternative and reasons CS give is work time as oppossed to safety

Regards
e

As he was meeting with the safety experts from London on Wednesday August 8th, Mr Forde received an email from a city council official who was investigating the cancellation of Mathew Street, informing him that Mr Hilton had now decided not to progress with the rescue plan. No explanation was offered.

>----Original Message---->

From: Karen.McMurdo@liverpool.gov.uk>
Date: 08/08/2007 08:32>
To: leon.forde@virgin.net>
Subj: Laptop

Lee

Colin (Hilton, eds) advised me he did ask you to undertake some work, but the proposal will not be taken up, can you therefore bring in your lap toptoday. Any problems please give me a call.

Regards
Karen McMurdo


In a subsequent conversation, Councillor Bradley told Mr Forde he was “****ing sick. I can’t believe what has happened.”

Later the same day, a local paper (the Liverpool Echo, eds) carried a story claiming, wrongly, that Mr Forde had been sent home on gardening leave. It is now believed that this story had been leaked on city council instructions in an attempt to try and implicate and smear Mr Forde.

COMING SOON: Part 3 The Battle between the Harbarrowboy and Storeyteller

7 comments:

Tori Blare said...

Did Mr Forde get officially told of the decision not to save the festival?
It seems by the article that Hilton did not actually tell anyone not to save the day?
I'm confused with that bit?
Dirty corrupt council.

Anonymous said...

Lee Forde requested written permission to rescue the festival as per his instruction from the leader of the city council.
This was necessary as the leader is not allowed to instruct an officer directly nor agree any expenditure incurred in undertaking any instruction.

In effect a simple request but a necessary request, otherwise Mr Forde would have been acting Ultra viras i.e. without authority.

Given that Jason Harbrow,Chris Green and Judith Feather (all of whom had been considered incapable of delivering the event by the safety report) were working on a plan to continue without the out door stages, Mr Forde would need high level support from all agencies to rescue the festival which HE had not cancelled!!

As he was considered by the saftey report, Merseyside Police and all of the suppliers as the ONLY person to be able to do so, it should be appreciated that he was prepared to take a major career risk formulating a rescue plan but, as a dedicated scouser (one of the few in the Culture Company) he was prepared to do so.
If you wish to know why Mr Hilton did not feel able to support this action, after verbally agreeing on the Tuesday, you will need to ask him and I am sure we would all like to know that answer.

I do hope this clears up your query.

Anonymous said...

Its not Fair Forde has more popularity than me.
I am the leader you know ! I might be crap and unwilling to accept any kind of responsibility but I AM THE LEADER!!
Just like Gary Glitter I am the LEADER !! Leader of the Gang I am !!

No I am not losing it I am the LEader !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

None of this makes any sense unless you ask your self the question:
DID THE CITY WANT TO DESTROY THIS FESTIVAL ?
If the answer is yes then it all makes sense.

1. Reduce the budget.(below what is necessary to make it happen)
2. Insist it happens in the city(when you know it cant)
3. Force the man who makes it happen to resign.
4.Insist on safety report.(then use as reason even though it does not say its unsafe)
5. Refuse a very plausible rescue plan.
6.Blame it on someone else.

None of it makes sense unless you absolutly do not want it to happen.

RIP Mathew Street Festival.

As we do not have the funds to carry it on any way nor the inclination, 2009 will be a wasteland for events in the city and blamed on lack of funds.
Kill it now and take the pain, just wish Forde would shut up and accept it then we could all get on with our jobs.

Anonymous said...

I think most of what Lateral Thinker said makes a lot of sense. However I disagree with his last sentence, I think the only way the people of Liverpool are going to get to know the real truth behind the cancelation of Mathew St & the inadequacies of those left in charge is through Mr Fordes revelations. Why should he shut up & let you get on with your job when his fine reputation & career have been publicly destroyed, & the real culprits are sitting pretty.

Anonymous said...

Its awful what the LibDem leadership has done to Beatrice Frankeal. She is a decent and honorable woman-they've done her in because she dared to speak out!

Anonymous said...

Yes the Lib dems leadership are out to get anyone who speaks out against them, a real nasty bunch of bastards.
They have no morals or scruples or consideration for anyone but themselves a real snake pit.
The best we can hope for is that they turn on themselves, maybe this is it ....

How the council use Ripa to spy on you....


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