Mr. Peter McKenna:

It certainly is the big question. This telephone conversation happened very early on in the process. I think Owen Keegan would have been aware of the concerts from Jim Clark who rang him on Saturday, 1 February. After that I wanted to get a reassurance and heads-up myself as to where we stood on the concert application for all five licences. I rang Owen Keegan, but he was not there; he was away from the office. A couple of days later he phoned back. I remember it well because I was conducting a meeting in my office with one of my senior staff. We talked about it and he said the city would be very supportive of the five concerts. He wanted us to make the process easy for him. He said: "Make One Direction happen well and put all the additionality you can into the applications."

We said we could guarantee we would put our best foot forward. We finished the call and I was ecstatic to share that with the individual in the office. From then on I was certain we would get five licences. We did much work on the One Direction concerts and brought additionality to the process. There were 20 or 30 meetings from February because we were engaging on One Direction at the same time and there was no suggestion that the applications might fail. I was so confident I went on holidays when the decision was made and would not have done this had I doubts.

It may sound dramatic but I would swear an affidavit based on what I have told this committee. That is how certain I am of the contents of the telephone conversation.