Well, there’s more to this crane and banner than meets the eye, it seems. Much more. I haven’t witnessed it myself yet but I’m told Tower Hamlets council has now done a U-turn and removed the banner from the crane because the owner popped up and threatened legal action. There is also a second banner on the gates of the Bangla City cash and carry that I understand will also be removed fairly sharpish.
On that second banner, I’ve been sent a fascinating email exchange between a Helal Rahman and a certain Chris Payne. I’ll reproduce it here in chronological order.
May 17, 6.58pm
Dear Chris,
Thank you for your email. The banner has already been installed and it is quite nice except the picture of the Mayor which resembles likes a piece of propaganda manifesto from a third world country. If we were aware that this picture was going to play such a prominent feature in the banner, we would have never agreed for this to be hung on our gate. This does not give a good image of the council’s cultural activities, as this is not the norm of an average council in the UK.
I hope that you understand our disappointment.
With regards,
HelalMay 18, 11.40am
Dear Helal,
Thank you for your email below and I am pleased that you like the banner, though I do note your reservation regarding the image of the Mayor.I have copied this reply to Takki Sulaiman, Head of Communications for London Borough of Tower Hamlets so he can register your disappointment.
Kind regards,
Chris
Chris Payne
Fortuna AssociatesMay 22, 4.38pm
Dear Chris,
Thank you for your response. My partners have expressed their strong feelings against the current banner and would like to request you to either replace it with the copy that you initially sent to us or for you to take it away completely. We have no problems with the previous image which was proposed to us and feel disappointed that we were deceived such manner.
If you decide to change the banner to the original image please do it as soon as possible otherwise we would like you to remove it within three working days.
Regards,
Helal
May 22, 5.08pm
Dear Helal,Thank you for your email below, and I am pleased to be able to tell you that we will arrange for the removal of the Curry Capital banners with the Mayor’s image and replace them with banners without his image. We will do this as soon as possible, I am issuing instructions immediately after this email.
We will do our utmost to have this done as quickly as possible though please do bear with me on this.
Kind regards,
Chris
Chris Payne
Fortuna Associates
What do we learn from this? Helal Rahman is, I’m told, the former Labour councillor who owns the Bangla City cash and carry. He had been approached by Chris Payne about installing a banner advertising the area as the Carry Capital 2012. Chris showed him a design that had no photo of the mayor and he agreed to it.
However, some time later, the Lutfur logo banner was installed, and to say it caused a degree of outrage is an understatement.
So who is Chris Payne? Well, longstanding readers of this blog and my former column in the East London Advertiser will know him as the advertising manager for the council’s East End Life newspaper. At one point he actually headed up the council’s communications department.
The last time I saw him was last October at the Curry Life Chef of the Year Awards where the likes of Eric Pickles and other MPs were guests. It was a Sunday evening and at the time I did think it odd he was there. Having spoken to him this morning, I now know why. He left the council last September and a month later established his new company, Fortuna Associates.
What does Fortuna do, I asked him. “It’s a consultancy specialising in income generation with public and private sector clients.” Advertising, then? “Yes. Raising money from advertising, marketing, sales and sponsorship opportunities.”
Was he commissioned by the council to work on the banner? “Yes, and for anything else on that, you need to speak to Takki Sulaiman. I’ve been working on this project since March.”
So he leaves the council, sets up his own consultancy and then starts touting for business from his former East End Life advertising clients in Brick Lane, and then five months later secures a deal to publicise the mayor from his former boss, Takki Sulaiman.
Chris told me no rules have been broken. I’ve asked the Department for Communities and Local Government for those rules. I’ve also asked the council how Chris’s contract was advertised and whether it was a tender.
It would also be interesting to know the value of that contract, why the photo of Lutfur was added to the banner, and how much it has cost the council to install and then take down,
Why is our council so consistently incompetent?
Trial by Jeory 
Ah, former Cllr Helal Rahman who was deselected as a Cllr then expelled by the Labour Party for standing against them in 2006 and then permitted to rejoin late last year after his 5 years was up. If he keeps this up I’m sure his anti Mayor rhetoric will be noted and rewarded. I wonder whether they’ll be so forgiving for other people who were booted out.
I’m quite surprised that there are no rules against this sort of revolving door nonsense it all looks a little odd. It would be really interesting to find out how much these contracts were worth, but I don’t think they need to have a reason to want to plonk the Mayors face on stuff I would have thought the rationale behind that was obvious. Takki Sulaiman seems to come up a lot I’m surprised he’s still in a job.
This is a clear breach of council procurement policy. [CONTENT REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS]. This contract was not tendered or advertised anywhere.
It seems the Mayor is only concerned about his photo and not interested in any policy details or why would he allow the useless Takki Sulieman to do what he likes. It’s unbelievable Takki has managed to hold on to his job for so long, he is clueless!
Is Chris a tax expert as well?
You didn’t mention the issue of whether or not this ex-officer of the Council is now wholly working for the Council or not and/or whether this might be seen as a device for avoiding the payment of tax.
I’ve no knowledge of whether or not this is relevant but since you will undoubtedly be asking a lot of Freedom of Information questions I thought I’d just throw this thought in for good measure.
Especially since Danny Alexander is now tracking down all civil servants paid other than via the government payroll
see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/9283197/Dozens-of-civil-servants-paid-off-pay-roll-for-over-10-years-Danny-Alexander-to-announce-and-they-will-not-be-named.html
But maybe this notion might be a good topic for another blog post – especially given some of your other posts of late…..
My recollection is that all those who are working largely or wholly for one client lose the right to deem themselves self-employed. Ditto the ’employer’ is not absolved from the requirement to pay employers NI. Back tax which is unpaid is always payable and fines can also be levied for late payment and any attempt to avoid payment.
Is this the tip of a very dirty iceberg?
Is “incompetent” the right word, Ted?
Is Harvey Milk Junior really Jenny Fisher. If so she/he is a real pain in the arse, if that isn’t all sorts of things!
This is the beginning of all the farce yet to come. The cronies and their dear leader are all ready squabbling of who can milk which cow. This farce has cost 3 grand to the council tax payer , at least. But they could have paid their friend double that. We all may feel like victors, by support of petitions and emails. In the end the Mayor was forced by the proprietors threat of legal action. If the proprietor had given permission, no way would they have u-turned, on basis of crime against art.
Well as we well know, LBTH doesn’t care much for rules, especially the [old and new] publicity rules: http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/localgovernment/1841578 the central problem being no process for enforcement and no checks and balances or transparency whatsoever in the ‘so-called’ council and mayoralty. I think this case is demonstrated here, in that it was private legal action not due process that changed this.
Yes, it appears Chris Payne of Fortuna Associates has exposed the council to this possible legal action from the owners. Why didn’t he obtain permission from the Hanbury St owner(s), as he did with the Brick Lane owners? Why did he not clear the changes to the banner with the owners before it went up? This is just basic stuff. And why should we pay for these fundamental mistakes – if the owners in Hanbury St do find the damage and prove trespass? Mr Payne should pay for this out of his private consultancy pocket – perhaps Fortuna Associates (who else is in this – more council ex-employees?) has insurance to take care of this.
His contract with TH council should be terminated – but it would still be good to know how he obtained this lucrative(?) contract.
Okay, so there is an article in the ELA where “Mr Hussain [owner of 49 Hanbury Street] says he only gave permission for a small notice to be put up—not the huge hoarding that appeared which totally covered the artwork.”
So perhaps Mr Payne is responsible here as well for receiving permission from an owner for a banner which was subsequently changed. Why on earth did he not clear the changes with the owners? Fortuna have to provide answers here and the council must confirm that residents will not be picking up the tab for this. Just taking it down has cost thousands, before any legal action. And why does the planning application have that strange note about ownership written on it, when Mr Hussain had already been found and was in discussions with Fortuna/the council? This is the ELA article:
http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/mayor_rahman_removes_2012_hoarding_blocking_roa_s_crane_mural_after_protests_1_1387183
It ‘Paynes’ me to say, nice enough guy as he is, those who know Chris Payne will no doubt vouch for Chris’s notable lack of attention to detail. It got him into trouble when he was an officer and it’s got him into trouble now.
Other than the critical questions that Ted and the other commentators raise about planning issues and how Chris Paynes business Ventura secured this contract so soon after leaving the Council, what I find interesting is why the Mayor awarded Chris/ Ventura this contract and not to one of his Bengali or IFE supporters. I would have thought his friend Mujib of Media Link Worldwide would have been pre-eminently placed to undertake such a contract, especially given that Mujib ran Lutfur Rahmans Mayoral media campaign. The Mayor owes him.
There are probably two reasons why the Mayor did not consider giving it to Mujib:
1. The Mayor has decided to work with more white people (ones he can manipulate and control) because he has run out of Bengali ones.
2. To deflect attention away from the common perception that the Mayor only works with and concerned about one ethnic group.
Lex, You are almost there. While Lutfur is not Intelligent he is crafty and devious, I make distinctions between them, he does have around him some sycophantic whites who take the shilling, give advice and make the place look good who are able to say to him, at times, don’t do that it will rebound. He doesn’t often take the advice.
He is also bright enough to know that Media Link and the Bangla media are enough to present him as a victim of institutionalised racism to Bangladeshis but in the wider world Media Link simply cannot hack it.
He is however caught up in being a third world political cacique who uses and abuses power. His real power base is in the IFE and with the businessmen who have backed him financially.
What seems to be happening is that even though he puts work out to white contractors who are former employees even they can’t do the job properly. Payne is obviously inept in that he showed a banner to Bangla City which they agreed with and then put up another with Lutfur’s picture on. I understand from contacts in Brick Lane that the banner is going to be changed for one that doesn’t have Lutfur’s photo.
If that happens it will be a major embarrassment for him in the world outside of the Bangladeshi community but as none of this ever gets reported in the Bangladeshi media he doesn’t really care as at the end of the day he can afford, failing criminal charges for financial fraud or vote rigging, to ignore that wider world.
With Livingstone gone he has no chance of getting back into the Labour Party. The extreme left in the shape of Jon Landesman of Left Futures and his ilk can be ignored as they are utterly marginal themselves as will be their pleas for him to be re-admitted.
Failing those criminal charges his position with bought and non existent votes is unassailable. He has created a a personal fiefdom which it is difficult or impossible to dislodge him from and a great deal of the blame lies at the door of Livingstone, the far left and the powers that be which have refused to clamp down on the vote rigging and membership list packing years ago. As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
I see there are no comments from the extreme left on what is going on on Tower Hamlets. When Lutfur wad elected it was an almost similar situation to when Respect gained those twelve seats. That is that the revolution was around the corner and the masses were finally going to rise up and make the revolution. Hmmm?
All quite now Messrs Maccurry, Landesman, Ui’Driscoil, Mismadewell and others.
Thought I would share this with you all. http://www.hurryupharry.org/2011/04/05/this -shames-labour/
And some news just in from Bangladesh. Police in Dacca working with British Border Security have arrested 19 people arriving at the British High Commission in the Bangladeshi capital seeking visas for last weeks Mela in East London.
All of the documents presented were,. it seems, forged and all said they had been charged £10 000 for them. The arrangement was that they would travel to the UK for the Mela and then simply disappear.
Allegations of this nature in relation to the Mela are not new and it was one of reasons why the festival was taken away from Lutfur Rahman financial backer the curry king of Brick Lane Siraj Uddin.
When Lutfur became Mayor he handed the festival back to Siraj. Questions need to be asked as to where the £190 000 has gone.
@ Lex
1. It’s Fortuna Associates Ltd, not Ventura…unless director Chris Payne has done a swift name change to avoid any obligations after his Fortuna f*up?
2. You say Mr Payne suffers from a persistent lack of attention to detail. That’s rather kind to your ex-colleague, isn’t it? Besides his “planning issues” (is that his writing on the dodgy planning application?) there are legal issues in possible damage to the wall on Hanbury St and – if the vacant land next door is not also owned by 49/the restaurant – then there is possible trespass, and possible damage to a party wall.
3. You say “The Mayor has decided to work with more white people (ones he can manipulate and control)”. How is Mr Payne someone who can be controlled and manipulated when he went so spectacularly out of control, so quickly on his first(?) contract for the council? And when he has a track record of not being attentive to detail in his work?
This company director didn’t get final approval from two owners for significant changes in the size and content, and in the Hanbury St instance, location, of this banner. He possibly is responsible for that inaccurate planning application. Thousands of pounds are now being spent fixing two banners of eight that he is responsible for.
At least we are shot of this [CONTENT EDITED FOR LEGAL REASONS] officer who could afford not to pay much attention to detail when we were paying for his lapses. Just assure us Lex, that Fortuna Associates Ltd will be paying for this, and any potential legal costs. Not us.
Mr Payne greedily felt a consultancy beckoning him; a jump to the private sector to sell his prodigious talents back to us at a vastly increased cost. There are possible pitfalls in this kind of thing, though. Please tell this “nice enough” company director.