Terrance King

Over the course of the last ten months, I have repeatedly been asked to put 'my side of the story' in regard to the ongoing saga of Brighton Pride.

I chose to keep my views to myself as they felt wholly unimportant at the time, however recent developments have led me to review this decision and I have been persuaded that to sit idly by and do nothing is no longer an option.

In March last year, a company of which I was a shareholder, Beds in Brighton, decided to sponsor a tent on Preston park, something which both personally and on behalf of the company I felt would be of enormous benefit.

It was agreed that £7,000 sponsorship would be paid to Brighton Pride for this, and the contract was agreed. Despite battling hard with Brighton Pride to reduce the level of sponsorship, the money was duly paid, and we were told that the contract was immutable, despite finding out later that two other operatives withdrew at the last minute with no penalty due to bad weather forecasts in the week leading up to Pride.

A further agreement was made for us to sponsor 30,000 exclusive lanyards at the event for an additional £5,250, these were to solely carry the logo of the Beds in Brighton.

Whilst the sponsorship for the first part was paid in full, the lanyards were obviously performance related as they needed to be distributed on the park, and so remained unpaid until after the event. This sadly never happened, and they remain for the greater part in a Brighton Pride lock up garage.

Sadly the company sponsoring them, Beds in Brighton, did not last too much longer after Brighton Pride. Pride bear no responsibility for this.

On October 8, 2009 I offered to cover the costs of the lanyards from my own personal money, only to be rebuffed by Brighton Pride despite stating quite clearly that I believed the sponsoring company, Beds in Brighton had a detailed defence in law due to the non completion of the contract by Brighton Pride.

On October 27, I received a terse letter from Yvonne Barker (chair of Brighton Pride) stating that I should pay immediately or they effectively did not want my money. 

After Ms Barkers departure I wrote again on December 16  to the trustees to repeat my offer and again on January 6, to express my shock and sadness that I had received no response from the board. 

I then received several emails from the board, on January 6 and January 15, both of which stated that my offer would be put to a board meeting on Thursday, January 25.

My disquiet at reading an Argus article on January 19 saying that Brighton Pride had secured a loan from the City Council on the basis that I (as a sponsor which I was not) had agreed to pay this money, was only exacerbated by no response from the board at all in written form or otherwise.

During what can only be described as a concerted campaign of blame in which I somehow became responsible for the mess Brighton Pide was in despite having paid over £15,000 for the privilege,  Brighton Pride now chose to hide behind confidentiality agreements which I had not seen, in order to not go on record and put matters straight to defend me.

Many people will be asking why I have chosen now to come forward and make this statement.

The answer is simple.

Last Tuesday, whilst watching Brighton Beach Patrol (sad I know), what should I see, but Lesley Burns, Brighton Prides Chief Executive giving out large quantities of Lanyards at Preston Park for another company.

Not only have Brighton Pride refused to defend a Sponsor, Beds in Brighton who spent an enormous amount of money supporting them, not only have they claimed that money is owed from a person that it is not and who has never been a personal sponsor, but there for all to see was the Chief Executive breaching Prides own contract by peddling another companies wares on television.

I would like to know on what basis Brighton Pride told Brighton Council that they had entered into any agreement with a sponsor to settle outstanding bills in order to secure the loan they so proudly trumpeted in the press, without first telling the person involved, and on what basis they were able to sign exclusive deals, claim confidentiality and break with wholesale impunity.

Most importantly of all I would like to ask how it is any longer possible for anyone to be involved with Brighton Pride when they are to be branded and tainted with dishonesty and duplicity by the organisation that so desperately needs their help?