The head of law at Brighton & Hove City Council attempted last month to 'gag' Gscene, to stop the reproduction of a letter from a ‘Whistle Blower’, in the September issue of the magazine.

Following the outcome of a six month Gscene investigation last year into the plight of two gay men who had been homophobically abused and terrorised by neighbours for six years before being rehoused by the Council; a 'Whistle Blower’s' letter was leaked to Gscene highlighting the alleged fast-tracking of a council tenant into a property of their choice, in the road of their choice, and the house number of their choice – with the help of a very senior politician. The property in question was procured by a housing association, specifically for the council tenant at the request of the council.

Gscene put the following questions to the Council's press department last month.

• What was the relationship between the senior politician and the rehoused tenant?
• Was it normal practice for a council tenant to get to choose the road they wanted to live in?
• Was it normal practice for a council tenant to specify to the council the street number of the house they wanted to live in?
• Why was the council tenant classified by the Council as ‘accepted homeless’, even though they were already living in a council house.
• Why was the tenant not transferred through the Council’s Transfer Incentive Scheme.
• Why was the tenant’s home visit not conducted by a Homeless Persons Officer.

The Council’s press department issued the following statement to Gscene following the request:

“This matter was thoroughly investigated by the Council’s internal audit investigators. They found no evidence of any impropriety whatsoever and the complainant and relevant councillors were informed of the outcome at the time. We now consider the matter closed.”

Four minutes later the Council’s head of law, Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis, sent the following email to Gscene Magazine:

“As you will be aware from the response from the Council’s communication team, the matter was investigated by the Council’s internal audit team and there were no findings of impropriety. The publication of the letter attached to your email will therefore definitely amount to the publication and dissemination of potentially defamatory material and I would ask that you do not proceed with its publication. I confirm that I have advised the persons concerned that should the publication go ahead, they should instruct solicitors with a view to instituting proceedings, which I hope will not be necessary.”

The 'Whistle Blower' has confirmed to Gscene that although he received feedback from the Council, he was never shown the Council’s internal audit report and was not satisfied his concerns had been dealt with adequately. The Council told him the tenant had had a new home acquired for them by a housing association at the request of the council as part of a 'pilot study'.

Senior politicians including the 'political' leader of the Council at the time, Simon Burgess, have confirmed to Gscene that they were not aware of any 'pilot study' in 2006.

Cllr Gill Mitchell, leader of the Labour group and the person who triggered the 'Whistle Blower' investigation in August 2008 said:

“I was made aware of this matter a year ago and immediately called for a thorough investigation.  Subsequently I was informed that this had been part of a pilot study although there was no record of other cases in this ‘study’ and it had not come before councillors for approval.”

In the 2007 Equalities Review, one of the headline recommendations was that the Council should implement an independent 'whistle-blowing' policy so that concerns by staff of Brighton & Hove City Council about bullying, discrimination and unfairness in the workplace could be reported to an external organisation rather than be investigated internally by the Council.

The present acting chief executive of the Council, Alex Bailey, has consistently opposed the implementation of this particular recommendation.  

In the public interest, Gscene has decided to make the 'Whistle Blower’s' letter available online on the Gscene Ltd website at www.gscene.com from September 1, while awaiting a Freedom of Information request to see the Council’s Internal Audit report on the case.

The 'Whistle Blower' no longer works for Brighton & Hove City Council.