Writing solely in my capacity as a councillor:
As already mentioned, another thing troubling me about Cllr Adje is whether or not he had any private meetings or dealings with Firoka, the Ally Pally developer, during the crucial period when the disastrous licence agreement with the company was reached. It's important as we need to know whether, or how, the negotiations regarding the Firoka licence may have proceeded at such private meetings.
Martin Walkate, who investigated, has issued two reports on the issue. In 'Walklate 1', published last year, he says the following (para 64):
“Councillor Adje, although also certain of the potential for withdrawal, is clear that his contact with Firoka was limited to meeting when Keith Holder [Ally Pally manager] was present”
In the 'Walklate 2' report, published a couple of weeks ago, Mr W gives a different account of this point:
[Keith Holder alleges] "A meeting took place between Firoka, Cllr Adje, and Keith Holder on 11th April [2007] with further telephone discussion between Cllr Adje and Kassam over the following weekend."
This was then put to Charles Adje in a whole series of detailed questions, most of which he refuses to answer properly. But under pressure the second time round, he declines to refute that he had private dealings with Firoka, saying simply that he “seldom received calls from Kassam" [the CEO of Firoka].
I've asked the Council to look into this point further, but what actually happened, we may never know, as there are of course no records of these conversations or encounters.
What we do know is that Cllr Adje's initial account of his dealings with Firoka was, as Mr Walklate might himself put it, 'at best economical'.
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