Mathew Street Festival ‘scapegoat’ gets £12k out-of-court settlement

Mar 19 2008 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

THE man blamed for last year’s cancellation of the Mathew Street Festival has reached an out-of-court settlement with Liverpool City Council.

Lee Forde, former events manager at the Liverpool Culture Company, has reached a settlement worth around £12,000 with the council.

It is understood Mr Forde had been seeking around £34,000.

While working at the Culture Company, the council had paid for Mr Forde to take a Masters of Business Administration (MBA).

An agreement with the authority meant he would have had to pay back the £12,000 cost as he left the council within three years.

Under the deal negotiated between Mr Forde and the council, the authority agreed not to pursue him for the money in exchange for him dropping his case.

A council spokesman said: “As a matter of policy we do not comment on individual personnel matters.”

Last night Mr Forde could not be contacted for comment.

It is understood both sides had been keen to avoid the expense of taking the case to an employment tribunal hearing.

Former Culture Company staff like ex-chief executive Jason Harborow and others were due to be called as witnesses.

Mr Forde resigned from the Culture Company in June last year, after seven years employment with the council, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.

When he submitted his papers to the employment tribunal he said: “I felt I had no other option than to resign after I requested additional resources to cope with the amount of events and that wasn’t being addressed.

“I was frustrated nobody was addressing the capacity issues within the company.”

In November, when the council’s much awaited inquiry into the cancellation of the Mathew Street Festival was published, Mr Forde and a former operations manager were principally blamed.

Mr Forde said he was being made a scapegoat and claimed the reason for the cancellation was the council’s desire to do the festival on the cheap.

Days after the report was published, he had a secret meeting with council leader Warren Bradley and regeneration leader Cllr Mike Storey.

Mr Forde compiled a dossier of the meeting which made a number of claims.

The contents of the dossier form a crucial part of a Standards Board for England investigation into allegations Cllrs Bradley and Storey conspired to remove Mr Harborow from his position.

Earlier this month, the Daily Post revealed how the budget for this year’s Mathew Street had been almost doubled to £750,000.

Mr Forde said this vindicated his claim that last year’s festival was underfunded.

davidbartlett@dailypost.co.uk