Warren Bradley: I never thought of resigning over Mathew Street

Nov 17 2007 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

AS DUST started to settle after the publication of the much- anticipated and delayed Mathew Street report last night, attention turned to next year’s event.

Council leader Warren Bradley insisted the showpiece event will go ahead next August with bands once more playing on outdoor stages.

He set out to reassure the people of Liverpool that arrangements were now in place to avoid a repeat of the catastrophic collapse that saw this year’s event virtually wiped out.

Although the festival took place after a last-minute rescue operation, all the performances were on indoor stages with the number attending counted in thousands rather than hundreds of thousands.

But if Cllr Bradley believes a line can be drawn under the events leading to the collapse of this year’s festival, opposition councillors made it clear the battle over Mathew Street will continue to haunt the Liberal Democrat administration.

Deputy Labour leader Paul Brant fired a battery of questions at Cllr Bradley with the message: “We want answers to the unanswered questions”.

And Labour leader Joe Anderson accused Cllr Bradley of a “dose of blame someone else” and “selective amnesia” after the council leader told the inquiry he could not recollect two occasions when he was allegedly warned of problems with the festival.

Yesterday the Daily Post exclusively revealed the main findings of the report ahead of its publication.

The report pointed the blame at former Culture Company operations director Chris Green and ex-events manager Lee Forde, and said they would have been subjected to a disciplinary inquiry over the fiasco.

But since both have now left their jobs, no such course of action is available.

The long road to disaster appears to start in February when Cllr Bradley and regeneration leader Cllr Mike Storey asked for savings to be made to help fund a son et lumiere event in April.

A crunch meeting on February 21 was attended by Cllr Storey, Cllr  Bradley, Colin Hilton, Chris Green and an individual identified as V.

The report states: “Unfortunately the meeting was not minuted and attendees’ recollections differ as to who attended and what was discussed and agreed on.”

 The report states that it appeared Mr Green proposed either cancelling Mathew Street or holding a one-day event to produce savings to fund the son et lumiere event.

The report says ofconcludes about the meeting: “There is clearly conflicting evidence as to what was agreed on, when and by whom.”

The report also picks up two further discrepancies between the evidence of Cllr Bradley and that of others.

Mr Green emailed Cllr Bradley on May 25 highlighting possible problems with the locations of stages.  “When interviewed, Cllr Warren Bradley’s recollection was that he was told nothing about the stages until early August 2007.”

Later in the report it stated: “Allegedly Colin Hilton alerted Warren Bradley about the police concerns and officers were taking action to deal with them before Cllr Warren Bradley went on holiday on July 21.

“At this stage Colin Hilton understood the concerns were not of a degree that could not be dealt with or that subsequently might force a cancellation.

“Cllr Bradley’s recollection of this differs.”

In conclusion, the report states that while Lee Forde had requested a budget of £600,000, he received an initial allocation of £500,000, later cut to £400,000 to fund the son et lumiere event, by Cllr Storey, and a two to three day event was required to be delivered.

The report concluded that the budget cuts “reduced the ability to deliver the Mathew Street Festival to the required scale by councillors, whether that requirement was for two days or three days”.

However, the report goes on to highlight a series of communication failings between Mr Forde and Mr Green.  “Poor communication at an operational level led to problems with more senior officers and members not being aware of the full scale of the issues until too late in the day,” it finishes.

The report calls for a review of event project planning and management processes so a set methodology can be laid down.

This is something the chairman of the Culture Company, Bryan Gray, last night said was already well under way.

“Over the past two months, we have carried out a rigorous review of our operational areas to ensure that the appropriate levels of resources and support are in place for delivery.”

However, Labour leader Joe Anderson last night made clear he is was not about to let the matter drop.

“Both Cllr Bradley and Cllr Storey are responsible. You can’t cut £100,000 from the budget and expect it to be delivered.

“But the conclusions gloss over that. Two people who are no longer in the organisation are scapegoated.

“I don’t see how we can have confidence in this report, which has been delayed and had changes made to it. We need to see the original before this can be resolved and we can move forward.” He called on both Cllr Storey andCllr Bradley to resign over the affair.  “At best the two of them go, at worst one should go.”

The Daily Post was unable to contact Cllr Storey or Jason Harborow for comment.