A leading councillor resigned from the Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust in the lead up to a strike by staff earlier this year.
And in her resignation letter she criticised the management of the trust, also known as Brighton and Hove Museums, saying: “Staff are paralysed by fear.”
Councillor Amanda Grimshaw was serving as the mayor of Brighton and Hove when she resigned as a trustee in December.
Her resignation letter was shared with board members in January and again in April as relations between management and staff worsened.
This week, a copy of her resignation letter was seen by Brighton and Hove News while the trust said that its dispute with staff, represented by the GMB union, had been “fully resolved”.
The Labour councillor said in her resignation letter that she was leaving because she had “numerous serious concerns about the management of the trust”.
She said that the trust did not have a whistleblowing policy or procedure that was acceptable to staff and that staff were “paralysed by fear” and unable to report issues.
She also cited health and safety concerns and a lack of care for “the estate and collections” and said that concerns and issues raised in reports were concealed from trustees.
Brighton and Hove Museums said: “Brighton and Hove Museums takes all matters relating to governance, staff welfare and estate management extremely seriously.
“To clarify, Councillor Amanda Grimshaw stood down as a trustee in 2025. The concerns raised were thoroughly examined at the time, including a thorough review by independent HR advisers, with the findings reported directly to the board of trustees.
“Despite repeated requests, no evidence or specific detail was provided to substantiate the allegations.
“The trust maintains robust whistleblowing and complaints policies guaranteeing complete anonymity for staff, supported by an annual independent staff survey.
“Care of our historic estate and collections remains a core priority, with specialist building and engineering reports reviewed as a standing item at every board meeting.
“Regarding union relations, the dispute with the GMB has been fully resolved.”
Another former trustee said that she was not only the only board member to have concerns about the proposed changes to staff pay, terms and conditions that precipitated the strike.
Councillor Grimshaw’s resignation letter said: “I did not wish to resign but felt that I had no choice as I felt unable to remain in the role due to numerous concerns about the management of the trust.
“The trust currently doesn’t have either a whistleblowing policy or procedure which is acceptable to the staff.
“Staff are still too terrified to raise any form of complaint or concern due to their fear of reprisals.
“There are serious health and safety concerns which I do not believe are being adequately addressed and I believe there is a general lack of care for both the estate and collections.
“Trustees have not been made fully aware of the extent of concerns and issues raised by reports as reports are presented in a manner which conceals the full extent of issues and concerns from trustees.
“I was in a position where I was unable to raise concerns and widespread feedback about serious issues across the board which were reported to me by staff at many levels of the organisation.
“Staff are paralysed by fear and do not feel able to report issues.
“Councillor (Alan) Robins and myself were treated with derision in board meetings and singled out for contempt by members of staff.
“I was therefore unable to stay in the role as I could no longer be associated with such unacceptable behaviour and, as a trustee, allow this to be done in my name.
“I felt resignation was my only option as I felt silenced while in the role of trustee of the Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust.
“I would also like to reiterate my deep love of the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museums and that my resignation was in order to help safeguard their future by highlighting my concerns.”
GMB members went on strike for two days in April after the trust proposed going back on a pledge to match local authority pay rates for its staff, many of whom were previously employed by Brighton and Hove City Council.
At the start of last month, GMB regional organiser Oliver Cruikshank said that the union had presented “a fair and reasonable proposal” at a meeting on Wednesday 27 May.
It “offered compromise on certain issues from our members including pay”, with the aim of ending the dispute in a way that would be agreeable to both sides.
Mr Cruikshank said: “This was rejected out of hand, with the existing offer no longer on the table and no plans for the board to meet to discuss any further resolution.
“GMB is entering these negotiations in good faith, with agreement seeming close a few weeks ago, but have been faced with a trust who are not even prepared to discuss the pay rise our members were due in April.
“We understand that the trust may be facing serious monetary issues but it is not our members – the lowest-paid but most important staff within the trust – who should shoulder the blame for this nor the responsibility to dig the trust out of any holes.
“In order to avoid further strike dates being issued, the trust need to call an urgent meeting, with trustees and decision makers from the council present, to be able to negotiate with GMB representatives and finally put a stop to this dispute.”
Three days of strikes were due to take place at the start of June but were called off after the GMB’s position was made public.
Talks resumed although trust chief executive Hedley Swain said: “Making minor adjustments to our terms is not a choice.
“It is an absolute necessity if we are to protect the financial resilience of this charity, safeguard five significant historic buildings and care for over one million items in our collections.”
The trust was asked how the outcome of the dispute with the GMB compared with the situation when it started but did not address that question.
Since October 2020, the trust has run the Royal Pavilion, Brighton Museum, Hove Museum, the Booth Museum and Preston Manor, all of which are owned by the council.
This is the trust which can afford to pay four of its employees over £60K a year (one of them more than 90K) but is constantly begging the public to give them money to cover essential repairs…
Who is doing the bullying and why? The Pavilion looks derelict from the back so this Trust has a lot to answer for.
My thoughts are that the Charities Commission should be involved with this. Part of their responsibility is ensuring governance documentation is in place. Not having a whistleblowing policy is a serious failing.