 THE ECHO can today reveal the catalogue of blunders which led to the axing of the Mathew Street festival. A long-awaited report into the fiasco lifts the lid on what went wrong in the months leading up to the event’s shock cancellation on safety grounds just weeks before it was due to take place. Event manager Lee Forde and Culture Company operations director Chris Green are blamed. Both would have faced disciplinary action if they had not already resigned. But the chain of events appears to have started in February when council leader Warren Bradley and regeneration boss councillor Mike Storey took money from the festival’s budget to help pay for a son et lumiere show and enhanced 800th birthday celebrations. Opposition councillors today branded the report a “political cover-up” saying officers no longer employed by the council were being used as scapegoats. The report says: * £400,000 was allocated for this year’s festival, £200,000 less than the cost of the 2006 event, after council leaders diverted funds. * Mr Forde blamed staffing and budget issues for not making progress with the festival plan but a definite budget was not agreed with Mr Green at an early stage. * Early warning signs that Mr Forde’s work was not up to scratch were not identified or acted on by Mr Green. * Mr Green did not act quickly enough to replace Mr Forde when he handed in his notice on June 4 even though he was due to quit the Culture Company days before the Mathew Street Festival. * Council chief executive Colin Hilton and Culture Company chief executive Jason Harborow were not told of the police’s concerns and the work needed to hold the event until July 11. * Mr Hilton says he told Cllr Bradley of police concerns before he went on holiday on July 21 although the council leader disputes this. The report reveals it was “widely known” in November 2006 that the Pier Head - previously the main stage site - was no longer available. But the problems with this year’s festival appear to have stemmed from an un-minuted meeting on February 21 – attended by Warren Bradley, Mike Storey, council chief executive Colin Hilton and Chris Green. Evidence suggests “Chris Green proposed either cancelling the Mathew Street Festival altogether or holding it as a one-day event (with five stages) in order to produce some of the savings required to fund the son et lumiere and birthday celebrations”. Mr Green’s recollection is that the suggestion was rejected by Cllr Bradley who said it “had to be held over three days”. Cllr Bradley’s recollection is that he and Cllr Storey agreed a two-day festival could be held. The report says: “With previous year’s costs at £600,000 Lee Forde put in a budget proposal of £600,000 for Mathew Street festival but received an initial allocation of £500,000. “The councillors’ subsequent requirement that it was run as a two to three day event and then Cllr Storey’s insistence in March that an unfunded event be funded by savings being made from the festival and 800th birthday fireworks display budgets rather reduced the ability to deliver the festival to the scale required by councillors.” It adds: “Cllr Storey insisted upon the funding of the son et lumiere event in the knowledge that such funding would result in a reduction of the funds available for the 800th birthday fireworks display and the Mathew Street festival.” But the budget changes were not properly discussed between Mr Forde and Mr Green. The report says: “Without this revised budget Mr Forde claims that he could not proceed with planning the event by way of completion of the event document. “Given the seniority of Lee Forde it is reasonable to expect that he would bring this issue to Chris Green as an example of one of the budget issues Chris Green had asked to be told about. “At the same time Chris Green should have ensured that Lee Forde had clear information as to what his budget was and to what extent, if any, it could be exceeded.” | 
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