Capital of Culture update: The year's highlight approaches

The Standards Board for England inquiry into the tussle between Liverpool City Council's Warren Bradley and Mike Storey, and Jason Harborow of the Culture Company has been completed. The central figures have been delivered a draft of the findings; oddly, the Standards Board thinks they should get a chance to comment on them before the people who have paid their wages do. Still, not long now before we should all find out what really happened, or an official approximation thereof.

Capital of Culture Update: Liverpool pays up

A couple of days ago, an anguished Paul Clein, Lib Dem city councilor from Liverpool, wrote the Guardian to defend his team's record:

John Healey's claim that Liverpool city council tops the league of inefficient councils is blatantly partisan and contradicted by the evidence.

Here's some blatantly partisan evidence for you to consider. The doughty council tax payers of the city are having their pockets picked to find a quarter of a million to pay off Jason 'Beg, Steal or' Harborow, former head of the Liverpool Culture Company. Harborow fell out with council leader - we're using leader in an ironic sense here - Warren Bradley after the mismanagement of the Mathew Street Festival came to light earlier in the year.

It's not entirely clear if the quarter of a million quid will come from the £20m hole in the Capital of Culture finanaces, or if it will be added to the size of that hole.

Ringo takes shine off City of Culture

Whoops.

The grand opening of the Capital of Culture had gone well, what with Ringo turning up - and, after all, he was a Beatle. Even although part of the original idea of the Capital of Culture was to try and remind people there's more to Liverpool than The Beatles.

And Ringo said nice things about the city, and everyone was very happy:

Ringo sang “Liverpool I left you but I never let you down” from the top of St George’s Hall during the People’s Opening.

In front of a capacity crowd at the new ECHO Arena Ringo said he was “this close” to moving back.

A week later, he turns up on Friday night with Jonathan Ross and is asked what he misses about the city:

Ross: “What do you miss about Liverpool when you’re not there.”

Ringo: (laughter)

Ross: “I didn’t know that would get laughter . . . Is there anything you miss about Liverpool?”

Ringo: “Er, no. . . Look I love Liverpool. I was a child in Liverpool. I grew up in Liverpool. My family members are in Liverpool. But you know. . . .

I had to tell the audience as it was so excited that I was this close to coming back. But I had a great time up there at the weekend [during the opening ceremony]. I did.”

Council Leader Warren Bradley is outraged - he took time out of trying to bury the Mathew Street Festival screw-up to try and spin the story:

Cllr Bradley, deputy chairman of Liverpool Culture Company, said: “It’s not helpful on national TV.

“But we saw at the press conference he did in Liverpool that’s Ringo’s style, to be flippant.

“He came to Liverpool and did a PR job for himself. And what we got from him being home paid dividends for us here and abroad.

“I’m not going to get hung up on it.”

Cllr Mike Storey, executive member for regeneration, said: “It’s hugely disappointing and sad.

“It’s disappointing someone who came to lead Capital of Culture year should go away and be so negative about it.”

And Ringo got VIP treatment when he was in the city - imagine what the people who turn up and pick their way through a series of building sites must go away thinking.

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/

Mathew Street report: it's a secret

The murky background to the pulling of the Mathew Street Festival - and the claims that senior figures knew the event was going to be axed as early as February - is thickening rather than clearing.

Despite having ordered an internal - rather than independent - enquiry, Liverpool council leader Warren Bradley has refused to let anyone see the finished report as he feels an urge to "correct inaccuracies" in it. A version with "corrections" has been published, but now, somewhat grudgingly, council chief executive Colin Hilton has said the original might be opened.

Once.

To Labour opposition leader Joe Anderson.

But only under the sort of conditions usually reserved for rare books in the Bodleian Library:

Colin Hilton has said he is considering letting Labour’s Cllr Anderson read the original document in the presence of town hall finance chief Phil Halsall and standards committee chairman Howard Winik.

In a letter to Cllr Anderson, Mr Hilton said: “I am asking the monitoring officer to consider a facilitated reading of that document on a strictly private and confidential basis.”

What's the point of that? So Anderson can know what the original report said, but not tell anyone?

Bradley should have the courage to publish the original version - with his "corrected inaccuracies" alongside, if he so wishes. It's time Liverpool City Council remembered it's meant to be a democrat body answerable to its citizenry rather than a privately-owned entertainment industry.

Mathew Street report being "amended"

Liverpool City Council's report into the expensive screw-up which saw the Mathew Street Festival being axed a couple of weeks ahead of the event has been completed.

So, what does it say?

Erm... we don't know, as Council Leader Warren Bradley is sitting on it while he makes 'amendments' to the findings. It probably doesn't matter much - Bradley's refusal to allow an independent investigation into the PR and financial disaster that befell one of the key events of the city's 700th birthday party means it probably doesn't make much difference if he changes every word of the report.

How much trouble is Liverpool 2008 in?

The crisis after crisis that has beset the planning for Liverpool's Capital of Culture year has resulted in a panicky change at the "Culture Company" overseeing the, uh, celebrations. Most notably, Phil Redmond and North West Development Agency chair Bryan Gray are now heading up a team of six, replacing the fourteen-strong board:

Phil Redmond will spearhead the artistic side of the 12-month cultural extravaganza, with NWDA chairman Bryan Gray in charge of the purse strings. Council leader Warren Bradley will be the link with the council and communities.

They're denying this is as a result of the embarrassing cock-up when the Mathew Street Festival was axed:

[...T]here were denials today the shake-up was the result of last month’s festival fiasco, with members saying there had always been plans to wind down the culture board when the full 2008 programme was announced.

Oh, really? If this a planned administrative change, then why is Liverpool Council's Warren Bradley going down to London next week to explain the DCMS about the changes? And why is Redmond effectively starting the planning all over again:

The former Brookside supremo will target greater community involvement and question the value of some setpiece events. He also wants a greater Liverpool “feel” to 08.

And what better time to start thinking about these issues after four years of burning through pots and pots of public cash, with just three months to go?

Oh, and:

Members have not ruled out reallocating money or finding cash to fund changes in the programme.

So, even if you think your event has been funded, the cash might be whipped away to fund something else. That's going to leave everyone able to finalise their plans, then.

Mathew Street: Bradley orders internal inquiry

It looks like Warren Bradley has held on to his job, despite the Mathew Street Festival fiasco in Liverpool. He's ordered an internal whitewash inquiry into his council's inability to organise the Festival, and the last-minute late cancellation. Of course, it might not be a whitewash, but considering the amount of damage the late dropping of the event could have done to the local economy, at the very leats an independent investigation might look a little more open.

Mathew Street screw-up threatens Liverpool Council head

Liverpool City Council leader Warrern Bradley is facing a no-confidence motion at tonight's council meeting, following his part in the costly last-minute cancellation of the Mathew Street Festival.

Somewhat surprisingly, Bradley is trying to suggest that his confidence or lack of it to head up the council shouldn't be an issue because there are more important matters to discuss:

Cllr Bradley said he had no intention of stepping down, describing the call as a “political stunt”.

He claimed it detracted from issues such as a debate on tackling gun crime after the death of Rhys Jones, which was due to take place at the town hall meeting.

You have to love the logic of a man who won't accept criticism of the way the city he is the leader of is heading because they've got to find time to talk about the gangs of youths running round with guns and the murder of eleven year-old kids on the street. The casual observer might wonder if, in fact, the gun crime in the city is another symptom of weak leadership rather than something of itself, and if a man who is incapable of organising a few Beatles tribute acts and a bit of a street party is going to have the skills the "city of culture" needs to get through 2008 with a more, rather than less, positive public image at the end of it.