The Suffolk Hyde Affair - Doc 234 Mildenhall Fire Station Open Day

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Thompsons
Solicitors
CONGRESS HOUSE
GREAT RUSSELL STREET
LONDOM
WC1B 3LW
DX 35722 BLOOMSBURY
TEL 0171 637 9761
FAX 0171 637 0000
Fax 0181-546 5187

CDJ/FBU/F98/60224

Mr A Wigglesworth
10 Somerleyton Road
Oulton
Lowestoft
NR32 4RD

By Post only

16th June, 1999

Dear Mr Wigglesworth,

DISCIPLINE CHARGES MR MICHAEL HYDE

Further to our telephone call today, I thought I would drop you a line confirming our telephone call.

I note that the Chief Fire officer is proposing to request the attendance of an assessor at Mr Hyde’s summary hearing and that he has suggested Mr Chris Jackson. Mr Jackson is involved in all the discipline cases.

Regulation 9 (4) specifically provides the Chief with the power to appoint an assessor for the hearing where the hearing falls to be heard by him. you have told me that the chief is going to deal with the matter under Regulation 9 (3) procedure. That being so, the CFO should have nominated another officer to deal with the hearing and therefore the case should not “fall to be heard by him” and therefore there is no power to appoint an assessor and the disciplinary procedure is arguably in breach of the disciplinary regulations.
The guidance makes it clear that the summary hearing procedure is more of an interview than a procedural and is informal. It is difficult to understand why an assessor would be needed in such a hearing.

Again, the Guidance makes it clear that an assessor is there to give solely technical advice or guidance that the disciplinary body may require during the hearing. What technical advice does the Brigade anticipate that they will need from Mr Jackson who is a member of the County Council and a solicitor? I anticipate that Mr Jackson will be there to say one or a number of things. Firstly, he may suggest that Mr Hyde was wrong to sue the Chief fire officer personally. In that regard he is right. However, it might be argued that in fact Mr Alcock was named purely because he is the Chief Fire Officer of the Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service. The solution to the problem was simply to apply to the Court to amend the Defendant to delete the reference to CFO Alcock. It was quite clear from the summons that the proceedings were against the fire Brigade and it is highly likely that the Court will have agreed to that amendment. It is an easy mistake for a lay person to make particularly when you bear in mind that when you are suing the police, the Defendant will be named as “The Chief Constable for…”.

Alternatively, Mr Jackson maybe there to argue about whether or not Mr Hyde’s action was likely to succeed. It would in my view be wholly wrong to suggest that it will not have succeeded. It may not but the issue will never now be resolved before a Judge. The point is that Mr Hyde put in the claim and the Council accepted that he was entitled to his money and offered to pay it to him.

If the hearing goes ahead with Mr Jackson’s attendance, I think you must do the best that you can. You must register your opposition politely but firmly. I suggest that you try and arrange for the meeting to be recorded if possible using a dictaphone but alternatively by written record. If the Brigade wants to know why you can explain that there is concern firstly that there is a campaign against members of the Fire Brigades Union and secondly that there is a practice in the Brigade of treating senior officers more leniently than junior officers in disciplinary matters and therefore the desire to record the proceedings is as much for the Brigade’s protection as it is for Mr Hyde’s. You can point to the fact that Mr Jackson is there as being an example of an unusual step to take in these cases.

Please let me know how you get on.


Yours sincerely



Craig Jones
For THOMPSONS