After agreeing to scrutiny of their tender process, Pride pre-empted the outcome by announcing they had awarded new contracts for both the Event Production and the Security and Stewarding for the summer event.

The contracts have been awarded on a 'four events' basis, to commence in 2010 and run to 2013 or 2014, pending a decision on what will happen in 2012 during the London Olympics.
 
Fisher Productions Ltd, the company awarded the contract for the event production, has been established for 25 years and holds a Royal Warrant.
 
Commenting acting Chair of Pride Robert Clothier said:
“The company has an impressive track record and showed an absolute commitment to working with Pride and all its stakeholders, as well as a desire to grow and develop the event in future years in line with community expectations.”
 
Graham Beswick, Fisher Production’s CEO said:
“We are delighted to have won the race to produce Pride in Brighton & Hove in 2010 and are looking forward to revitalising it; improving production values, guest experience and increasing sponsorship opportunities.
 
“I believe that Pride in Brighton & Hove is one of the most important events in the city’s annual calendar and will continue to be one of the most renowned Pride events in the world.
 
“As a resident and business owner in Hove, I am delighted that we can influence and upgrade the event to focus on maximising the value to both the Brighton and Hove economy and the LGBT community locally and across the UK. Support from residents and business owners in the past has been outstanding. Fisher Productions intends to make an event that also stands out."
 
Most recent accounts for Fisher Productions Limited lodged at Companies House identifies Graham Beswick's address as Greek Street, Soho, London. A Companies House search of Mr Beswick's company associations shows sixty-nine appointments. Twelve, including Fisher Productions Ltd, are still current. Thirty of the companies have been dissolved, with an additional twenty-seven resignations logged.

An Experion credit search obtained by Gscene Magazine revealed a High Risk Credit warning on Fisher Productions Ltd. The credit search reveals there was a heavy trading loss of £599,398.00 in the latest accounting period, a deficit in both capital and shareholder funds, and there has been a very significant fall in shareholder funds over the latest accounting period.

The company is listed as a maximum risk company by Experion, with a suggestion that all credit transactions should be referred to the parent company, Fisher Productions Holding Ltd, in order to obtain personal guarantees from a director.

Fisher Productions hit the event trade press media headlines in January 2009 when they announced plans to downsize, as the credit crunch ‘took chunks’ out of the events industry.

Fisher Productions was quoted at the time as saying:
"We could be making some redundancies in response to a predicted market downturn in 2009".

 However Fisher added there should be more positive news regarding a “restructuring” in the coming weeks. There is no evidence on the Fisher Productions website that they have produced a festival event like Pride before, specialising in corporate events.

The company awarded the contract to deliver the security and stewarding for the next four Pride Summer festivals is Select Security & Stewarding.
 
Speaking about the new contract, Robert Clothier said: “Select provided evidence of a genuine understanding of Pride - both the positive elements and the challenges. They gave commitments to working closely with any new Event Production company to ensure continuity, using their extensive experience to aid the planning process for 2010 and beyond.”
 
Annemarie Chebib from Select Security & Stewarding said: “We are absolutely delighted to have received notification that we have won the tender for security services working with Pride in Brighton & Hove for 2010-2013/4. We look forward to supporting the organisation in the years to come, and will celebrate our tenth year as suppliers to the event this coming year. We hope our knowledge and expertise will assist Pride to continue to grow and improve.”

Gscene enquiries have established that the new security contract will actually cost Pride more money next year. In previous years there were two different contracts for security, a day contract and a night contract.

The company delivering the night contract charged significantly less than the day company. Pride decided this year to merge the two contracts for tender resulting in Pride having to pay more overall for security on Preston Park in 2010. The company who provided the night time security was a local gay owned company and long standing supporter of Pride in Brighton and Hove.

A spokesperson for the company told Gscene:
“we are very disappointed that Pride chose to merge the security contracts and raise their security costs. We chose not to bid against Select Security because we did not want to go into a bidding war against a company who we respect and get on with. As a result of this tendering process Pride will be paying £3,652 more next year in Security costs for an event they have been trying to downsize. That is £3,652 that could have gone to the charities and LGBT organizations that Pride have failed this year and have said they intend giving no money to next year.”

Cllr Paul Elgood the openly gay leader of the Lib Dems on Brighton and Hove City Council said:
"This process should have been subject to an independent scrutiny process before announcement so that everybody can be confident of a fair and open tendering process. I have to wonder why this was not taken forward for the sake of the Pride Trustees themselves and those from the community with an interest in the event?"

Pride have failed to answer a media enquiry from Gscene magazine asking if Pride have had any business relationship with Graham Beswick in the last 12 months or have conducted business with any of Mr Beswick's companies that he is noted as an officer of at Companies House.

All information about Pride in Brighton & Hove’s tendering process for both these contracts are available for scrutiny on its website:

www.brightonpride.org