Capital of Culture year: turmoil kicks in before it even starts

The omens for Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture aren't looking good.

The worries that visitors would be greeted by an enormous building site - rejected as scaremongering back when the planning was underway - have been borne out by experience; last week, plans were announced to cover some derelict buildings, like teenagers hiding unwashed pants behind the curtains; unfortunately, little can be done about the numerous building sites cluttering the city centre - especially with four sites being closed down following the collapse of the Livesey Building Company.

Meanwhile, funding for the year has turned into a nightmare, with the council suddenly realising it's about twenty million quid short for its plans. Before the year even begins. Like a drunk flogging his kidney for a bottle of booze, the council is now considering flogging off property owned by the people of the city to try and avoid the place going all Northern Rock.

They might wind up having to flog the Town Hall at the rate they're burning through the cash: Jason Harbarrow is due to be canned from his role running the year (and what better time to lose your pilot than, erm, nine days from the start?); he could be due up to a quarter of a million quid in severance pay, to say nothing of the costs of recruiting a replacement at short notice.

There's still the question of what exactly happened with the late cancellation of the Mathew Street Festival, as well: "Independent" council appointee Standards Board chairman Howard Winik has compared the two versions of the report on the event - one produced by the non-independent-at-all internal enquiry and one after it had been revised by council leader Warren Bradley, and declared there was no funny business:

“I have read and compared the report in the form originally handed to the leader of the council with the published report.

“I have ascertained and read each amendment. A few of the amendments were corrections of factual errors and some were typographical and grammatical corrections.

“Some amendments went to the emphasis put on certain matters by the interpretation of the investigating officers.

“I am satisfied that none of the amendments affect the substance of the findings. The recommendations of the two reports remained the same.”

Which makes you wonder why Bradley was so terse about anyone not from his team looking at the original version: are we really expected to believe that a document was considered so sensitive it could only be read by a Labour councillor under supervision and on the strict understanding that he not divulge the contents to a living soul simply because it contained a smattering of typos?

Oh, and Bradley and Mike Storey are to be investigated by the nation standards board for England and Wales over claims relating to the treatment of Jason Harborow. Storey has previously been censured by the board for bringing the council into disrepute over his struggles with David Henshaw, former Liverpool City Council Chief Executive.

Strangely, none of this found its way into the Liverpool nativity/