Why I Dissociated Myself From Disabled Pride Ltd
I have been asked to explain why I dissociated myself from Disabled Pride Ltd, and If I could provide valid reasons for doing so.
In answer to this I am making public my correspondence with Tessa Wilson - chief executive and owner of Disabled Pride Ltd so that others may be fully aware of the concerns that made it an absolute requirement for me to have no further links.
This is further to me withdrawing on 14 October 2009 - after having been asked as of 28 Sept 2009 to consider becoming a Director of Disabled Pride Ltd.
I was obliged to withdraw as of 14 October for a number of reasons concerning the operation of Disabled Pride Ltd - and I was never a director or employee of that company. I had been working towards the goal of having Disabled Pride a viable entity with events, sponsors and opportunity. I received no payment for this and all costs incurred have been met from my personal finances. I have never been offered any payment or remuneration for any work done - or the expertise that I used in the work I did free of charge.
I am obliged to ensure the names of certain people and certain facts relating to them, not directly linked to the issues, are kept private.
__________________________
20 October 2009 23:02:27
Tessa Wilson MBA
Percorsi Ltd,
3 St Georges House,
Vernon Gate,
Derby,
DE1 1UQ
and as
Chief Executive
DISABLED PRIDE LIMITED
HIGHFIELD LAWN LONGFORD LANE
LONGFORD
ASHBOURNE
DERBYSHIRE
UNITED KINGDOM
DE6 3DT
Dear Tessa
As discussed Tuesday 20/10/2009
I am concerned that I am still personally being linked to Disabled Pride Ltd - and as discussed there are a number of issues around companies that you are linked with ( Public Records - Companies House - London Gazzete - Domain Registration Details (WhoIs) - Data Protection Registration ) that leave me concerned on a personal level.
I have also made it clear that I am happy to take knives and arrows in the back when it serves a bigger purpose, and that there seems to have been some undue attention by as yet unknown parties concerning my involvement in Disabled Pride. However, due to growing issues I am obliged to address bigger issues for me to be able to move forward in many areas .
Reputation is a serious matter both in Business and in Personal Lives.
You have linked me as PoliticalCripple to your website athttp://www.disabledpride.c
You commented today that if I had raised an objection you would have addressed this over the weekend as you have people you can call upon to address such issues around web sites and web presence. I wish that you had made this clear at the time. I understood from numerous comments that the only person you had available dealing with Web was###### ########## who I understood was on Holiday at that time. You did make it clear that ###### was on holiday for one week from Friday 16 October and also leaving Percorsi at the end of October.
We were of course distracted during that conversation in addressing the accessibility issues for the website - and the problems that had been caused by not following best practice in dealing with a Website about Disability for a Disabled Demographic. It has to be hoped that these issues are fully addressed so that the website does not in fact end up as a "cause célèbre" in the disability world and an albatross around the neck of any company owning and advertising from it. It presently is a very poor shop front for the concept, image and brand of Disabled Pride.
It is simply not acceptable for a website promoting disabled pride to be so poor at meeting the needs of disabled people in net access. It is damaging and most improper. It is also downright disrespectful.
Having reviewed the situation I wish to make it expressly clear that Disabled Pride Ltd (Company No. 07032042) may not link my name, identity or support ( express or implied ) to your work, businesses or actions without my express written consent, obtained in advance.
You have also stated that you intend to transfer the domain names disabledpride.co.uk and disabledpride.org.uk back to me.
I have agreed that this would be a best course of action at this time, for many reasons.
I understand that you are awaiting the return of ############## from holiday on Monday 26 October 2009 so that the Domain Transfers can be actioned. I do not understand why there has to be such a delay if you do have suitable people to call upon as you indicated over the website content issue?
I understand that you intend to transfer the Website to a similar domain "disabilitypride.co.uk" that you personally purchased own and have control of since 10 Sept 2009. You also intend to progress with business and project development under the banner of "Disability Pride" as Percorsi Ltd.
Please also ensure that as part of the website deployment to the domain "disabilitypride.co.uk", the website is updated and any and all references to myself are removed.
You did express concern as to the nominet charges at £11.50 per domain in having the transfer back actioned. I will happily pay these as part of the process - simply select the relevant box to require me to make the payment and this can be actioned by me as part of the transfer back.
Kindly have the IPS TAG for the domains changed to "DAILY" and I can commence the transfer at my end - and the formal transfer will need to be actioned from the nominet account holding the domains. I will await the relevant email confirmations and action them as soon as they have arrived. The IPS TAG needs to be changed via the hosting account at fasthosts.
As flagged up to you - DisabilityDating.com still states that Disability Dating Ltd (Company No. 05777116) is the owner when you have confirmed that the company has been wound up and no longer has limited status. Under section 1197 Companies Act 2006, this is not allowed - and also domain registrations also need to be updated to reflect this.
I understand that having brought this matter to your attention at approximately 5.00 pm today it has in fact been actioned on the Disabilitydating.com Website 20 October 2009 21:26:53 and I am glad to see that the advice on this issue has proved useful and been applied.
You also confirmed that you had acquired Disabilitydating.com via ##########################
You also indicated that you believed that DisabilityDating.com was covered by a Data Protection registration by @@@@@@@@@@ - but unfortunately,@@@@@@@@@@ have no such Data Protection Registration with the office of the Information Commissioner.
You have made it clear that you will be addressing these issues with @@@@@@@@@@ promptly.
There is also concern that the audit trail of IP addresses that come from Disabilitydating.com terminate in a server farm in San Antonio Texas IP 64.49.219.246 at a facility run by Rackspace. There was a vogue a few years ago for Server reselling due to over capacity in the market and a number of people found that they were purchasing Server Capacity from UK companies and then found that all data was in a group of server farms in the USA. This has raised a number of issues under Principle 8 of the Data Protection Act and Relevant European legislation that has caught many companies out.
You did explain that you purchased Disabilitydating in good faith, but it would seem that all relevant information about the business and associated liabilities were not made clear. The information is of course publicly available using relevant net services.
In any event, Disability Dating as a limited or none limited company still has the obligation under the Data Protection Act 1998 to make sure they know when and how to comply with the Data Protection Act - and I had to even flag this issue up ( section 17 of The Data Protection Act 1998http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Act
Even having had to sever my direct involvement with DisabledPride (Disabled Pride Ltd) as of Wednesday 14 October 2009 - I was still impressing this legal obligation upon you in response to your phone calls to me concerning the withdrawal of individuals who had agreed to be directors of the company. As I made clear I would support DisabledPride in any way that I could - rendering advice - acting as a sounding board - and found myself doing so repeatedly post 14 October. Data Protection is an issue that I have been obliged to flag up and address even then.
I also made it clear that due to experience and knowledge I can even be a liability for Organisations. Whilst some may be able to claim mitigation for errors made in good faith and ignorance, when it comes to many issues that can not occur where I am involved. I am either obliged to ensure that specific legal obligations are met or withdraw to protect my own Liability.
I was concerned that you were of the view that Disabled Pride Ltd would have it's Data Protection Liabilities and obligations covered by a Data Protection Registration for Percorsi Ltd. I was obliged to advise you that his was not correct and Disabled Pride Ltd would be obliged to have a separate and lawful Data Protection Registration.
I did advise that this could be done by Phone via the ICO and by electronic means in a matter of hours. I understand that this step has still not been taken.
As I have discovered, Percorsi Ltd does not have a Data Protection Registration - and there seems to be growing and inexplicable confusion as to how to ensure that Data Protection Obligations are met. Even if Percorsi Ltd is of the view that they do not Process Data relating to clients, one would expect Percorsi to be processing to be processing Data about employees. You have mentioned contractors, sub contractors and clients in the conversations we have had, and as such I do believe that Percorsi Ltd does need to rectify it's position on Data Protection Registration so as to not fall foul of The Law.
I am after all obliged to impress this upon you to protect my own position.
Then there is the issue of liability of directors of any company who allow breaches of The Data Protection Act to occur (section 61) and I was concerned that this issue was simply not being addressed by those who had signed Companies House 288a forms ( Appointment of Director or Secretary ) on Saturday 10 October 2009 at the meeting in Warwick.
I do understand why you should feel that you Business information was being questioned - but as I pointed out having such issued flagged up so they can be addressed is a business courtesy. You did say that you have people to deal with these issues for you, but evidently they have not been doing their jobs, and it's you who is left with the liability - not them.
This is always and issue is ensuring those you employ and contract to provide services do as contracted - and it is the never ending burden of the Good Manager to crack the whip to protect all from Liabilities and even possible prosecution as Joint Directors. I have agreed with you that in the set up of Disabled Pride and Disabled Pride Ltd there has been a problem with skills mix and quality of management. Section 61 "Liability of directors" within The Data Protection Act 1998 is most pertinent and relevant. http://tiny.cc/IsDfA
I am concerned that the businesses that are linked to you directly and indirectly have been allowed to fall into the position of being removed from the companies house register be default, when it is always best to properly wind them up to protect company image and for propriety. It does not look good having a string of companies that have been wound up behind you - and for me it is not appropriate for me to be linked with anyone who does this.
I do understand that for commercial reasons and cash flow some allow this situation to develop - but such a trail of publicly accessible information is damaging to Brand Identity, Business Reputation, Personal Reputation and also to those who can and are linked to it by others.
We also discussed:
o Disability Dating Limited (Dissolved 15/09/2009 )
o Tessa Shaw Consultants Ltd ( Active - Proposal to Strike off )
o Hotbikebits Ltd ( Active - Proposal to Strike off )
o Zeeboo Ltd (Dormant)
o BigFish Net Ltd ( Active - Proposal to Strike off )
o BIGFISH CREATIVE CONSULTANTS LIMITED (Active - Proposal to Strike off )
o Percorsi Brand Consultants Ltd
o Disabled Pride Ltd
I do understand your concerns that those who had withdrawn as proposed directors of Disabled Pride Ltd were gossiping and acting in ways that were improper. I did assure you that I had not been furnished with any of the information in question by any of them.
It had been forwarded to me by an associate who did some research as he was aware that I had been overly busy in working to get DisabledPride 2010 set up, and following this exertion I was forced to rest and attend to a number of matters that I had set aside to create the time windows needed up until I withdrew on Wed 14 October. As I have made clear repeatedly, I do have an extensive network to call upon in many areas - and as a matter of courtesy they also frequently call upon me.
To my knowledge no one has been sneaking about, been underhand and No One has been doing anything improper. It is all public record after all.
I understand your concern that some of these companies are being linked to you, when you indicate that you have not been connected to them. There may be some confusion in the records of Companies House and how their data is being used by other commercial groups that has arisen due to your name change from Shaw To Wilson upon marriage, and the addresses involved. If that should be the case it would need to be addressed under the Data Protection Act and the records set straight.
Once such errors start to propagate they can run out of control very quickly and even become overly difficult and even impossible to have addressed. 25 years of Data Protection have shown this, and it is still of concern that so many do not take this issue as seriously as it warrants. Data Protection makes headlines when Disks with 16 million data sets for people are lost - but it does not make headlines when Inaccurate Data or Data Mis-managment tears your life apart . That is why the Law places the burden upon the processor to comply. I also do welcome moved to implement Criminal Sanctions for numerous breaches of the Data Protection Act as a deterrent to abuse.
However, I still remain concerned that companies such as HotBikeBits Ltd ( http://www.hotbikebits.co.
Perhaps this is why it has been flagged up as linked to you and Disabled Pride Ltd?
You also claimed that Percorsi Ltd and BIGFISH CREATIVE CONSULTANTS LIMITED were not linked in any way - yet the Percorsi Blog at http://tiny.cc/QnTDI states
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
bfcc become Percorsi (welcome to our new blog)
Welcome to our new blog!
You may have noticed a few changes to bfcc over the past month or so, the great news is that we are now part of the Percorsi Group.
Given that you are a Director of Percorsi Brand Consultants, I would have expected you to be fully aware of what Percorsi Ltd does and does not own - and what is being reported in the public domain concerning the relationship between these two companies - even by the companies themselves.
I also understand that Percorsi is using the historical client base of Big Fish Creative Consultants on the Percorsi website, and this again would have to indicate that Percorsi and Big Fish are related. The History of Big Fish, those employed at the time (Chris Wilson - Julie-Marie Carter - Mark Bartram - Stine Poulsen - Andy Baggott) and the bfcc client list and portfolio are available via the net to be verified.
The bfcc domain http://www.bfcc.co.uk of course now routes to the Percorsi Website. Also the contact email address for the Domain Registration of disabilitydating.com is given as chr...@bfcc.co.uk - and this is the record listed as "Record last updated on 10-Aug-2009 - Tucows WhoIs".
It is concerning that you are not aware of the links between these two Businesses and how historical information form one is being used in the other - though you did indicate that this may have arisen due to actions by Chris Wilson your husband - prior to your marriage.
You have indicated that there is no connection and reason to query the links, so I take it that you will be ensuring that a number of these errors and issues are promptly and fully addressed so that no one will or could be mislead by them in future.
I do agree with you that the last 7 weeks ( is it really only seven weeks ) have been a very difficult time for many, and I also understand your comment that should Disabled Pride Ltd (Company No. 07032042) be listed at companies house as dormant, there would be no negative inferences to be taken from that. That is after all a standard Business Practice in dealing with companies that are none functional or utile - and in many ways it does save on the paper work too.
I have agreed with you that there can and often legitimate reasons for discrepancies in the Publicly Available information concerning companies and their assets. As you are aware, I am a devil for the detail and maintaining propriety , especially when it comes to dealing with third parties such as sponsors who will after all check all of these details as part of a Sponsorship consideration. They wish to ensure that their money is used wisely and as I have repeatedly made clear that any organisation provides "Value For Their (The Sponsors) Money.".
Dealing with project planning and sponsorship is not just looking for opportunity - it also involves making sure that the Road ahead is clear and that all obstacles are found, removed and fully addressed so that you advance with certainty and not just a wing and a prayer.
There are simply far too many stumbling blocks for that to be viable at the moment, I also do not in any way wish to be linked to any such stumbling blocks, however they may have occurred. Human error does occur but it is important that it is addressed pro-actively and promptly by good management so that it does not cause bigger problems at a later date .
As I explained, I personally have a number of roles that I fulfil, when my expertise is called upon, and should my personal credibility be called into question there are implications beyond just myself that I am obliged to address most pro actively.
We both agree that "Disabled Pride" is far too important a matter to be damaged by errors or anything that may reduce the growing credibility, social inclusion, Equality and Human Rights of Disabled people here in the UK.
It is a pity that in many ways the slower and harder road to creating and building a Disabled Pride concept and a Disabled Pride Movement will now have to be followed - but then again it may well be for the best and better in the long term. Rome was no built in a day
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