New on 13 September 2004
Updated on 24 February 2006

On 5 August 2004 I sent the following letter to the Festival Organiser of Manchester Pride. I received no reply. It wasn't until March 2005 that I finally received a breakdown of costs (but no details of where income came from).

Peter Tatchell advised me to write to the Pink Paper. I did, enclosing a copy of the letter below, but they chose not to publish my letter. I also sent a copy to my MP who is following the matter.

5 August 2004

Claire Turner
Festival Director
6th Floor
Churchgate House
56 Oxford Street
Manchester
M1 6EU

Dear Claire Turner

I wrote to you by e-mail on 14 December 2003 and asked for a breakdown of the costs of Europride 2003.

You replied on 9 January saying that you were unable to provide this information, as costs and accounts had not been finalised. You said that once they were, the information would be made public 'as in previous years'.

I wrote by e-mail again on 8 May 2004. In your reply dated 10 May, you said that you were unable to provide me with this information, as the income and expenditure costs for Europride had only been audited the previous week (eight months after the event finished). Also that details would be published on your website 'very soon'.

I wrote you by e-mail again on 10 July 2004, two months later, saying that I could still not find this information on your website. You chose not to reply to that e-mail.

I wrote to you by e-mail on 3 August 2004 with my concerns about lack of transparency over the £240,000 costs involved in this event. I asked to see a breakdown of the £200,000 that was handed over to Europride as a 'contribution to... pay for the security and costs of the Big Weekend'. You have not replied to that e-mail.

I telephoned on 4 August. Left a message for you, and you have not returned my call to date.

Since December, I have posed the same question via your website on two occasions and you have chosen not to answer it in your question and answer section. Despite a great amount of information on how the £127,000 that was left over after costs was distributed.

I understand you are employed as a full-time Festival Organiser for this event? Please can you tell me why you have not made these cost details public almost one year after Europride finished? And why you have repeatedly refused to give me this information?

Would you kindly supply me with the information that I have asked for? I have waited since last December. Alternatively, please let me know where and when two of us can see this information in the accounts.

I will then make the costs public via my website, as you are apparently unwilling to do so for some reason.

This event is promoted as a charity fund raiser. Manchester's Gay Community, and indeed the wider public in Manchester, are entitled to know how the money they contributed is spent. Not only the approximately one third of income that was left over after costs of £240,000, but every Pound of income. As each Pound that is spent on costs is a Pound less for the good causes. This is the only way the Gay Community can have a proper discussion about the tpe of event we want this to be.

In 1999, this event had an income of many hundreds of thousands of pounds. But, in the end, there was nothing left for good causes. We had meetings, we got some answers on some things and other questions about what happened that year remained unanswered. I was at some of those meetings. We said it must never happen again and we were promised more transparency over costs and the running of the event in the future. But where is it now?

I have been extremely patient. But now I feel that the only solution is to take these questions into the public arena.

Yours sincerely

Contact