Exclusive: Content of report revealed

Aug 3 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

THE world experts who recommended the cancellation of the Mathew Street Festival visited the city just once – last Friday – to discuss safety issues about the showcase event.

Their report, exclusively obtained by the Daily Post after the Culture Company refused to release it, highlights major concerns with personnel issues at the Culture Company.

It sensationally reveals that it appeared that no identifiable health and safety officer had been appointed to an event which attracts more than 100,000 people less than a month before it was scheduled to begin.

Richard Lamb, director of Leisure Safety at consultants Capita Symonds, headed a team that met officials after being commissioned by the Liverpool Culture Company to undertake a review of the plans for the festival.

At the meeting Mr Lamb met Lee Forde, the Liverpool Culture Company’s events manager who resigned from his job earlier this year, but agreed to stay on until after the event. Also present were Merseyside police officers PC Keith Rice and Sgt Paul Marley.

After discussing the event they toured the proposed sites where the events would take place, including The Strand, Dale Street, Derby Square, Chapel Street, Tithebarn Street and Williamson Square. They also went to see a proposed floating stage close to the Albert Dock.

In his summary Mr Lamb spoke of the concerns over the loss of expertise, and a perceived instability within the festival team. He said some of the staff engaged at the last minute to run the event may have had “insufficient time and compe-tence to undertake the work”.

Then comes the stunner from Mr Lamb’s report: it would take six months for the remedial action needed before the festival could be held. Nothing could be done in the few weeks before the proposed event.

Then comes the recommendation that the event should be postponed.

The report speaks of key resignations from the Culture company, saying there did not appear to be “any confirmation about who would be the nominated safety coordinator for the festival”.

A number of concerns were highlighted in the report about the reduced capacity due to the loss of the Pier Head and the lack of specific details in the risk assessment relating to the seven sites.

The report’s main conclusion stated: “In order to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of all involved is taken care of and to protect those responsible for delivering this, it is recommended that the event is postponed.”

Capital Symonds’s brief from the Liverpool Culture Company was to conduct a review of the plans for the festival with a view to commenting on the viability of the event in relation to the health and safety risks.

The report says two previous health and safety officers have recently resigned from their posts. Existing documents mention two proposed Health and Safety Officers, namely Eddy Grant of the Liverpool Culture Company and Tim Roberts of The Safety Shop.

It says: “There does not appear to be any confirmation as to who is the nominated Event Safety Coordinator for the event.

“Tim Roberts has had no involvement with the event to date, therefore, we would assume that he has insufficient understanding of the complex nature of this proposed seven-stage event. He has not, we understand, had an input to the risk assessments.

“His letter of appointment is unspecific and vague, with no conditions of professional service, etc. No evidence or proof of his competence in this type of event was seen and his CV does not support such experience.

“The previous Event Manager has resigned taking a considerable amount of knowledge and experience of this event away.

“Eddy Grant who has previous experience of this event is currently on sick leave.”

The report said a number of event sites were found to be unsuitable, mainly as a result of the ongoing regeneration in the city, such as raised curbs on The Strand and considerable construction works, barriers, etc.

larryneild