The Curse of Saint Edmund
Centros Miller's PR man smears Knights as racists
30/10/2006The Knight's of St Edmund were recently contacted by a group of people in Lancaster with the following e-mail:
Dear Sirs
I am part of a group of Lancaster residents called 'Its Our City'. Centros Miller and our Council are planning to build a Debenhams in Lancaster. So far, Centros Miller have conducted a 'survey' and have held two rounds of 'consultation' meetings for local residents and others about their plans. The last of these meetings was last Wednesday in Lancaster Town Hall and it was facilitated by a Mark Anders. During the meeting David Lewis from Centros Miller said that none of the concerns being raised about this development ruining our historic city had not been bourne out in any of the other developments they have completed. I informed the meeting that in fact there had been opposition to Centros Miller's plans in other places and that there still was. I used Bury St Edmunds as an example. He said that your organisation was like the Ku Klux Klan, that you were nutters and that you in fact wanted a carpark and not a forward looking development. I pointed out that your website contained much well written information and that your organisation seemed like one of perfectly reasonable people to me. I also asked him to explain why at a point in your city there had been a meeting of 700 residents during which the proposed development had received less than 20 votes in favour of it. At this point the floor was given to Steve Bryson who I understand you also have experience of. He explained to the meeting that everything on your website was untrue and libelous. I asked him when they would be suing you then. He answered that they could sue you but had elected not to. He went on to say quite a bit more - about your parish ballot and the phone poll they organised about the development in Bury St Edmunds - much of which is of course featured on your website. I write to you with the above information as I thought you might find it of some use.
In Lancaster many people seem to be of the view that Centros Miller can be worked with over the coming months to get the best out of the proposed development. One or two of us here are opposed to the development given its likely impact on our city. This is not the general view of the whole residents group. In any event we are organising our own public meeting in the Town Hall on the matter to take place on 10 July. This date comes just before the City Council Cabinet make a decision on the contract with Centros Miller. i wondered whether you would be able to make any input to our discussions based on your experience of Centros Miller. Perhaps you could write a message which we could copy and distribute or read out to the meeting. Maybe you might even like to attend.
We have a planning meeting next Friday (9 June) so it would be most appreciated if you could get back to me by then.
Many thanks and best wishes
(Name withheld by Knights of St Edmund)
The Knights were, needless to say, rather miffed of being accused of being Nazis and libelous. So we replied:
Dear Bill
Thanks for your e-mail. I can only say that every word about the Cattle-Market development on our web-site is true. We have a lot more on interesting information which will be appearing on our web-site later in the year.
To halt the negative publicity Mr Bryson is now employed by BOTH the borough of St Edmundsbury and Centros Miller, an interesting conflict of interest and I am sure he will explain to you how he can advise both the contracting authority and the contractor on public relations without a conflict of interest.
Mr Bryson says we just want a car-park and that simply is not true, but we know that our town centre is already in a grid-lock for 4 hours a day and bringing in more traffic without building new roads and more parking is pointless and will only contribute to congestion.
Every time Mr Bryson has arranged an election Centros Miller appears to 'win', every time anyone else arranges an election on their development proposals they lost. The fact is all the votes not organized by Bryson have gone against Centros Miller.
The allegation that we are like the KKK is not very funny, especially for the Knight and Senior Ward Nurse who is married to an Indian Muslim with whom he has had two kids. As Hitler, another PR guru, use to say, "If you are going to tell a lie, make sure it's a big one."
The Knights of St Edmund are fighting for a 1000 years history of a town we love, which is going to be swamped by a huge development that is already destroying local business, displacing traders and destroying the heritage and character of our town. Mr Bryson is paid to persuade in Plymouth, in Bury St Edmunds, in Lancaster....... the difference between us and Mr Bryson is the difference between a lover and a prostitute. Our advice is be true to your love and avoid the honey tongued blandishments of scarlet PR men! All Bryson can do is smear and spoil what he cannot argue against.
Furthermore, in Bury St Edmunds the keenest supporters of the development are the councils senior non-elected officials. It is possible that Centros Miller have similarly cultivated relationships with some of the senior non-elected council officials in Lancaster and this might be a useful line of enquiry and to see who is promoting the development.
Finally, it is short notice to get a leaflet or statement together but I have past your request on to another Knight who deals with public statements, unfortunately he is away in europe until the 11th June but I have forwarded your e-mail and he will be getting in contact directly.
Good luck and please stay in contact, if you have any more specific questions please feel free to ask or wish to exchange information.
Best wishes
The Knights of St Edmund
PS We believe Bryson is responsible for sending anonymous abusive e-mails from temporary hotmail accounts in an attempt to intimidate, as we have only received abusive e-mails after we have really upset him. Childish but it speaks volumes about the man.
Mr Bryson has to answer the following questions:
- Were the businessmen financing Centros Miller consulted before Mr Bryson played the race card and accused the Knights of being like the KKK?
- What justification do the businessmen financing Centros Miller have for using Mr Bryson to smear their opponents as racist?
- Is it normal business practice for the businessmen financing Centros Miller to accuse those that oppose their developments of being racists?
"Neither Mr Steve Bryson nor Halogen have ever been employed by St Edmundsbury borough council in any capacity what so ever"
(20th June 2006, Marianne Hulland, on behalf of St Edmundsbury Chief Executive Office)
The Borough now must explain:
- If there is no relationship between the Borough and Mr Bryson, where did the Borough get the idea of "Bury Lovers" campaign from, and if Mr Bryson did not come up with the idea who suggested it to the Borough?