FESTIVAL REPORT IS A WHITEWASH? YOUR CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR SAY

THE DEBATE IS WELL AND TRULY OPEN ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CANCELLATION OF THE OUTSIDE EVENTS OF MATHEW STREET FESTIVAL AUGUST 2007.

Since the publication of the report 15th November 2007, public opinion has been showing a belief, that the whole report is a whitewash.

The blame has been laid well and truly at the doors of Mr Forde and Mr Green.

The report however has numerous contradictions and blatant omissions of the truth.

See below for copy of official report.

You can have your say by writing to the council, writing to the papers, writing to your councilors, signing the 2 petitions on line debating the truth behind this disgraceful affair in Liverpool's history.

If we allow them to lie to us, they will continue to lie and treat the Liverpool people with utter contempt.

On line petitions

Lee Forde is being made the scapegoat of the festival scandal petition

Is the Mathew Street report a whitewash?

Nov 20 2007 by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

Mathew Street festival (320)

The report into the Mathew Street ‘fiasco’ still left many unhappy. Alan Weston reports

THE 11th-hour cancellation of the outdoor element of the Mathew Street festival was generally reckoned to be one of the biggest PR disasters in Liverpool’s history.

But the way the much-delayed report into the fiasco was handled has come a close second for some.

Following a lengthy investigation, the original report was changed after concerns over alleged “inaccuracies” were raised by council leader Warren Bradley.

This in turn led to accusations from council opposition leader Joe Anderson that the report – event-ually made public at the end of last week – was a “political cover-up,” and to demands to release the controversial first draft.

In the event, blame for the embar-rassing collapse of the festival, one of the key events in the city’s 800th birthday year, was laid principally at the door of two senior officials at the Culture Company. Both have since left their jobs, meaning there will be no disciplinary inquiry.

Cllr Warren Bradley, council chief executive Colin Hilton and Culture Company chief executive Jason Harborow largely escaped censure in the 30-plus page report. But the report into the cancellation of the outdoor stages of the festival high-lighted “serious mismanagement” in the Culture Company.

It blames former operations director Chris Green and events manager Lee Forde for not realising or not communicating the serious-ness of the problems affecting the festival to their superiors. Mr Forde has already defended his actions.

Cllr Bradley has never considered resigning but said lessons needed to be learned.

The Daily Post asks: Was the Mathew Street festival report a whitewash?

* OUR planned debate on airport-style security at our stations has been held over.

alanweston@dailypost.co.uk

YES: The Case For - Inside job leaves everyone waiting for answers

by Liam Fogarty, chair of amayorforliverpool.org.

SCRAPPING the outdoor festival hurt Liverpool badly. This report adds insult to injury – it’s an insult to our intelligence.

On August 10, Cllr Bradley ordered an inquiry into the Mathew Street fiasco. Asked who he thought was to blame, he said, "It’s down to officers who are paid through the public purse to deliver events."

Having pre-empted the verdict, Cllr Bradley got the outcome he must have prayed for. But the rest of us are right to be sceptical. The report lacks credibility.

We deserved a truly independent inquiry. Instead, we got an inside job.

This council is happy to pay huge sums to outsiders for spin and good PR. Yet, faced with a PR disaster of its own making, it opted for an internal investigation. No wonder Liverpudlians aren’t convinced.

Whatever mistakes Messrs Forde and Green may have made, to see more senior figures escape criticism simply beggars belief.

In Parliament, ministers are responsible for the mistakes their civil servants make. The consequences can be career-ending. It may not be fair, but it goes with the territory.

But in Liverpool, responsibility is something you dodge, not something you take. The report confirms that nobody was in charge as Mathew Street unravelled. Remember, this is not some school fete we’re talking about.

It is a huge, international showcase for Liverpool. If the threat to such an event didn’t show up prominently on our civic leaders’ radar, it ought to have done.

Mathew Street exposed Liverpool’s crippling lack of leadership. The festival needed someone to take the reins and take the rap.

Cllr Bradley’s lack of support for Culture Company chief Jason Harborow is telling. The bookies will give you long odds on Mr Harborow seeing out his contract.

Predictable calls for us all to "move on" ahead of 2008 just don’t wash. Our key arts institutions won’t let us down. Great events will take place. But the city’s decision-makers can’t simply shrug off the Mathew Street debacle.

"Lessons must be learnt," say the report’s sponsors. Too right. Liverpool’s seat-of-the-pants style of management is no way to run a great city. Internal enquiries can never restore public trust in the Council. And without real, accountable leadership, Liverpool will always be just a headline away from the next fiasco.

A meaningful apology from those who claim to lead our city is the least we deserve.

NO: The Case against - Liverpool can shake the world by working together

by Cllr Mike Storey, executive member for regeneration at Liverpool City Council

THE Mathew Street Festival should never have been allowed to get to the position it did, because of health and safety concerns, which brought about the cancellation of the outdoor stages.

I have to say I find it slightly galling to see Labour councillors huffing and puffing; remember in the ’90s, when the Labour council refused to give any money to the Mathew Street Festival and wanted to charge the organisers for the licences.

It was left to the new Liberal Democrat council to save the Festival and year on year, we have seen the Festival grow and expand to become the internationally acclaimed event it is today.

It is this poor behaviour that must stick in the throat of those who have organised the event, with the very same politicians never thanking the officers publicly for their incredible work.

Political point scoring to them is more important than real concern and support.

The Mathew Street report into the reasons for the cancellation is not in my mind a whitewash, but it is extremely vague in certain areas, crucially around important factual information. It is very easy to blame others, and I find it sad that those very same officers who have worked tirelessly, morning noon and night, have become the focus of everybody’s attention, instead of the process and procedures which allowed the situation to arise.

I feel certain subjects within the report received too much coverage at the expense of quite fundamental information:

Why did the report not question the overall senior management of the Capital of Culture Company?

What is the point of having a highly-paid management team to have overall responsibility for staff and events, if there is a lack of internal control, which was clearly identified within the re- port?

Why was the budget for 2007 realigned and events cancelled with no information being dis- seminated about these decisions, either to the elected members, Board members or the chief executive of the City Council?

Whitewash no, lessons learned, yes.

The time has come to move on, there is a new team in the Culture Company who have a record of delivering change. Liverpool has an opportunity to shake the world; the team working in unison will ensure that happens.

UTTER BOLLOCKS FROM STOREY TRYING CHANGE THE SUBJECT AND POINTING HIS FINGERS AT THE LABOUR PARTY!

send your views to the Daily Post?

Forde comes out fighting

“I've been made a scapegoat,” says the city's former events manager as the Mathew Street Festival report is finally released. Read it in full, here....

by Angie Sammons One of the two people to be blamed for the cancellation of the Mathew Street Festival today came out fighting by turning up outside Liverpool Town Hall - supported by the city council's former spin doctor - as journalists packed the building to hear the findings of the long awaited report into the shambles. Lee Forde, the Liverpool Culture Company's former events manager, who spoke exclusively to Liverpool Confidential at the end of August to reveal why had quit his post (click here) was flanked by Matt Finnegan who today announced that he is acting as Mr Forde's unpaid press representative. Lee Forde outside the Town Hall The Mathew Street report, which has been beset by delays in publishing for various legal reasons, cites Mr Forde and his former line manager, Operations Director Chris Green (who has also since left the Culture Company) for either not realising or not communicating the seriousness of the problems affecting the MSF to their superiors, and says that both would have been subjected to disciplinary action had they still been in post. However, Mr Forde claims to be in possession of a thick dossier of emails, many of which, he says, indicate that senior council members and officials were made aware of potential operational concerns as far back as February. And as the city council officials and its leader, Warren Bradley, fielded questions from the local media inside the Town Hall, Mr Forde told us outside: “I haven't had the advantage of reading the report in any form, and I haven't had the opportunity to edit, or alter it in any way during the last three months, but it now seems clear that the city council is trying to use me as a scapegoat.” Mr Forde went on: “I did the best within my power and within the reporting structure to make people aware - at the highest possible level - of the issues we were continually raising. To pretend otherwise is a travesty of the truth. “There was a serious battle over funding for the birthday year celebrations between the Culture Company and senior councillors - sadly Mathew Street Festival lost out. I did not want people to become the physical casualties of that battle.” “Both my staff and I repeatedly warned there were serious problems of public safety and funding over Mathew Street, but nothing was effectively done even after I resigned. I have no intention of hiding away – I have done nothing wrong and nor have my team. I ran Mathew Street successfully for five years and my team won awards for their work.

“We were proud to work for the city. But I am ashamed now of what the city council has done. They know exactly who was responsible for the cancellation of the Mathew Street festival.” Mr Finnegan, the city's former media chief who resigned from his £65,000-a year-post after an 18-month suspension during the well documented David Henshaw-Mike Storey feud, said: “I worked with Lee for six years, he always struck me as one of the most professional of the council's employees and had the utmost integrity. “I do not like seeing people hung out to dry and made a scapegoat for something that was not their fault and not their responsibility. “ I believe him when he says that he repeatedly told people what the problems were with Mathew Street and the danger to public safety. The responsibility for cancelling the event doesn't lie with him but with much more senior people in the Culture Company and the city council. Of course they won't come out and defend their reputation, but Lee has to do it and I am here to help him." Warren Bradley: "A fully open and transparent investigation" Mr Finnegan added: “There are very serious issues at stake here. This is not the last you are going to hear of this. I think there will be more stuff that will emerge over time because it's about the way that the city is being run and it's about the future of Capital of Culture.” In a statement, Councillor Warren Bradley said: “I promised a fully open and transparent investigation into the cancellation of the outdoor stages and I am pleased that the report has now been published for everyone to read.” Read the report in full, here....

IF LINK TO REPORT DOES NOT OPEN FROM HERE GO TO liverpool confidential for full details.

Mathew Street Festival Coverup Revealed

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Taken from Liverpool Daily Post, the official document investigating the cancellation of outside activities, during the Mathew Street Festival of 2007.

WHERE IS THE REAL REPORT THOUGH?

HomeNewsLiverpool News

REVEALED: How Mathew Street fiasco began a year ago

Nov 16 2007 Daily Post

Mathew Street festival (320)

A long-awaited report into the Mathew Street fiasco today lifted the lid on what went wrong in the months leading up to the event’s shock cancellation on safety grounds just weeks before it was due to take place.

As the Daily Post revealed today, event manager Lee Forde and Culture Company operations director Chris Green are blamed.

Both would have faced disciplinary action if they had not already resigned.

But the chain of events appears to have started in February when council leader Warren Bradley and regeneration boss councillor Mike Storey took money from the festival’s budget to help pay for a son et lumiere show and enhanced 800th birthday celebrations

Opposition councillors today branded the report a “political cover-up” saying officers no longer employed by the council were being used as scapegoats.

The report says:

• £400,000 was allocated for this year’s festival, £200,000 less than the cost of the 2006 event, after council leaders diverted funds.

• Mr Forde blamed staffing and budget issues for not making progress with the festival plan but a definite budget was not agreed with Mr Green at an early stage.

• Early warning signs that Mr Forde’s work was not up to scratch were not identified or acted on by Mr Green.

• Mr Green did not act quickly enough to replace Mr Forde when he handed in his notice on June 4 even though he was due to quit the Culture Company days before the Mathew Street Festival.

• Council chief executive Colin Hilton and Culture Company chief executive Jason Harborow were not told of the police’s concerns and the work needed to hold the event until July 11.

• Mr Hilton says he told Cllr Bradley of police concerns before he went on holiday on July 21 although the council leader disputes this.

The report reveals it was “widely known” in November 2006 that the Pier Head - previously the main stage site - was no longer available.

But the problems with this year’s festival appear to have stemmed from an un-minuted meeting on February 21 – attended by Warren Bradley, Mike Storey, council chief executive Colin Hilton and Chris Green.

Evidence suggests “Chris Green proposed either cancelling the Mathew Street Festival altogether or holding it as a one-day event (with five stages) in order to produce some of the savings required to fund the son et lumiere and birthday celebrations”.

Mr Green’s recollection is that the suggestion was rejected by Cllr Bradley who said it “had to be held over three days”.

Cllr Bradley’s recollection is that he and Cllr Storey agreed a two-day festival could be held.

The report says: “With previous year’s costs at £600,000 Lee Forde put in a budget proposal of £600,000 for Mathew Street festival but received an initial allocation of £500,000.

“The councillors’ subsequent requirement that it was run as a two to three day event and then Cllr Storey’s insistence in March that an unfunded event be funded by savings being made from the festival and 800th birthday fireworks display budgets rather reduced the ability to deliver the festival to the scale required by councillors.”

It adds: “Cllr Storey insisted upon the funding of the son et lumiere event in the knowledge that such funding would result in a reduction of the funds available for the 800th birthday fireworks display and the Mathew Street festival.”

“Chris Green updated Cllr Bradley and Cllr Storey separately in May with a relatively detailed outline of the proposal.

“No evidence of any further communication to members of issues and concerns with the festival was found.”

But the budget changes were not properly discussed between Mr Forde and Mr Green.

The report says: “Without this revised budget Mr Forde claims that he could not proceed with planning the event by way of completion of the event document.

“Given the seniority of Lee Forde it is reasonable to expect that he would bring this issue to Chris Green as an example of one of the budget issues Chris Green had asked to be told about.

“At the same time Chris Green should have ensured that Lee Forde had clear information as to what his budget was and to what extent, if any, it could be exceeded.”

The report then alleges Mr Forde had “clear instructions” from the police and councillors by mid- April of what was expected but “failed to progress the plans”.

It says: “It is around May that one would expect the pace of the planning to increase, but instead it seems to have slowed down.

“Lee Forde used the budget issues as a reason for not progressing the plans, but he failed to communicate this to Chris Green, who could reasonably expect Lee Forde to have been finalising the plans.

“At the same time, given Cllr Bradley and Cllr Storey’s requirements, which Chris Green was fully aware of, one would expect Chris Green to be taking a more active role in planning for the event.

“He failed to do this and Lee Forde was left largely to his own devices.”

The report speaks of “early warning signs” that Mr Forde was “not fully focused and committed to delivering a successful Mathew Street festival”.

It says: “Chris Green failed to act on those signs even after Lee Forde resigned on June 4. “Chris Green took too long in starting the recruitment process for a replacement and should have been more decisive with Lee Forde immediately following his resignation.”

The report reveals that as early as May 2007 police were concerned enough to be considering commissioning an “independent inspection”.

But Chris Green suggested they did not proceed because the Culture Company “already used an independent safety adviser for Mathew Street”.

The cancellation could even have been avoided if action had been taken in early June, the report claims, and work requested by the police on June 5 had been done.

It says: “It was a month later when Chris Green started to appreciate the amount of work to be done. His failure to get a replacement event manager appointed, adequately resourced and briefed in time was a significant factor that led to the eventual cancellation.”

Lack of communication between Mr Forde and Mr Green is criticised by the report.

It says: “It was not until July 4 that Chris Green was fully aware of the significant amount of work to be done and the level of concern the other agencies, predominantly the police, had about the festival. He should have been aware of those problems far earlier and alerted Jason Harborow, but he failed to do so.”

Mr Hilton and Mr Harborow found out about police concerns on July 11 and took “appropriate action based partially on information given to them by Chris Green at the time”.

In late July, consultants Capita Symonds were commissioned to look at safety plans for the event amid police and Culture Company concerns.

They recommended delaying the event by six months, effectively forcing its cancellation.

The report says: “Allegedly, Colin Hilton alerted Cllr Bradley about the police concerns and that officers were taking action to deal with them before Cllr Bradley went on holiday on July 21.

“At this stage, Colin Hilton understood the concerns were not of a degree that could not be dealt with or that subsequently might force a cancellation. Cllr Bradley’s recollection of this differs.”

The report ends by saying Mr Green and Mr Ford would both face disciplinary investigations if they had not both resigned from the council already.

It also recommends the Culture Company’s communications process is reviewed “as a matter of urgency”.

Copyright and Trade Mark Notice © 2007 owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited. Liverpool Daily Post™ is a trade mark of Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statement before using this site.

What have the people of Liverpool gained from the honourable title of European Capital of Culture?

Well for a start they have this huge bill paid to yet another "outside of Liverpool" PR Company!

Taken from Daily Post

LIVERPOOL Culture Company has paid more than £320,000 to a London public affairs firm to promote the city over the last two years.

Last night it emerged FD-LLM has been paid £323,758 since July 2005, almost £12k a month, for lobbying and staging networking events.

It also emerged £35,000 was paid to Kent company Strange Cargo for a giant Beatles-inspired sculpture on wheels called “Jude”, for the city’s 800th birthday pageant celebrations.

Labour group leader Joe Anderson has now called a meeting with the district auditor to scrutinise the way the Culture Company has spent money. But the council insists the work of FD-LLM was “vital” in raising Liverpool’s profile as European Capital of Cul-ture 2008 amongst influential Westminster and Whitehall audiences.

Liberal Democrat council leader Warren Bradley said FD-LLM provided engagement between senior figures from the city and London based politicians. It also established the Liverpool 2008 All-Party Parliamen-tary Group in December 2005, which included prominent politicians like former Conservative leader Michael Howard.

Liverpool Confidential - Mathew Street cancelled

 

THANKS GO TO A SOURCE FOR THE COUNCIL VERSION OF WHY THE MATHEW STREET FESTIVAL HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

NEED I ADD ANYTHING?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIVERPOOL

 

This year's Mathew Street Festival has had to be cancelled for health and safety reasons. Below you can read the full council press release.
Liverpool's 2007 Mathew Street Festival has been cancelled for health and safety reasons.

The decision follows independent advice from Capita Symonds Limited, the country's leading experts in health and safety at outdoor events.

They were employed by the Liverpool Culture Company to undertake a comprehensive review of the plans for the festival, and highlighted the loss of the Pier Head and extensive regeneration work taking place in the city centre in August, which has reduced Liverpool's capacity to host an event which regularly attracts more than 100,000 people to the city.

Their advice, backed by Merseyside Police, states that this reduction in capacity, combined with huge crowds in an open, licensed environment, means there is a significant safety risk to the public. 
The detailed planning for the event, and discussions between the city council, police and safety officials, cannot fully eliminate the risk.

Chief executive of Liverpool City Council, Colin Hilton, said: "We have been working tirelessly for months to try and make the Mathew Street Festival work in the city centre. Unfortunately, it has just not been possible to make it happen this year. We have a responsibility for the safety and welfare of every single person attending the event.

"We brought in the country's leading experts to examine our plans, and look at the health and safety issues, and we have to take their advice. We are rightly proud of the festival, and were desperate for it to go ahead this year, but public safety must come first."

Merseyside police's assistant chief constable, Helen King, said: "Having had sight of the advice from the independent consultants to Liverpool Culture Company, we fully understand why they have made the decision to cancel Mathew Street festival this year. Public safety has to be the paramount consideration."

The loss of Pier Head and other regeneration work going on in the city has made planning for this year's festival an extremely difficult exercise, but staff worked right to the 11th hour to try and produce a workable plan which could accommodate the festival in the city centre.

Extra measures this year included an extensive temporary CCTV network to monitor crowd build-up, a big increase in the number of safety stewards and the use of seven stages across the city centre to spread the density of the crowds. 
The festival is the only major event for which a large area of the city centre is licensed for the sale and consumption of alcohol.

However, despite these extra measures, police and safety staff still had reservations about possible crowd safety implications, particularly in light of events in Clayton Square last year. 
To ensure the event provided the maximum protection for the public, organisers called in independent experts in to examine all public safety aspects of the event.

Regrettably, that review has concluded that there would be too many risks for the festival to go ahead as planned.

The advice relates specifically to the unique conditions surrounding the staging of the Mathew Street Festival this year, and does not affect the city's ability to stage other large-scale events, including the city's 800th birthday celebrations on 28 August.

Colin Hilton, added: "We have done everything we can to make sure the festival goes ahead and explored every possible alternative, but there comes a point where you can do no more, and this is it. Everyone is hugely disappointed it cannot go ahead."

Jason Harborow, chief executive of the Liverpool Culture Company, said: "In many ways, the Mathew Street Festival has become a victim of its own success this year. The huge growth in the popularity of the festival, combined with the loss of the Pier Head, presented us with a massive problem. 

"Unfortunately, that problem has proved to be insurmountable. We worked hard to try and find a way to stage the event in the city centre, but even after months of planning we were still not satisfied. As a last resort we employed national safety experts Capita Symonds to see if they could see a way through these intractable problems. Sadly, they have concluded there is still too great a risk to attempt to do so."

"The festival has become an integral part of the city centre's calendar of activities. We know that businesses and the public want to keep it in the city centre, and that's why we've tried right until the very end to achieve that."

The major difficulty in staging this year's Mathew Street Festival has been the redevelopment of the Pier Head which, in recent years, has served as a focal point for the festival.

The Pier Head can accommodate up to 34,800 visitors at any one time, but visitors to this year's festival would have to be accommodated on the city streets - many of which are also undergoing regeneration works.

The works at Pier Head include an extension to the Leeds Liverpool canal link, a replacement Mersey Ferry terminal with new visitor attraction, a new cruise liner terminal and the new Liverpool Museum. 

In total, these developments will deliver £260 million of new investment, attract 1.2 million visitors each year and create almost 1,000 jobs.

 

 

 

Liverpool Confidential - Mathew Street cancelled

LIVERPOOL CARE CRISIS GETS EVEN WORSE!

Liverpool care firm collapse hits 500 patients

Jul 13 2007

by Jessica Shaughnessy, Liverpool Daily Post

A HOME care agency relied on by hundreds of Liverpool’s most vulnerable people is to go into liquidation. Lyndhurst Home Care will shut down today, leaving more than 500 service users, mostly elderly, and 200 carers uncertain of their future. The closure comes just weeks after the company warned that controversial changes in city council contracts would drive it out of business. Liverpool City Council last night moved to reassure the elderly people dependent on the agency that plans were already in place to look after them. But care industry insiders say the news spells the start of a “wake-up call” for the authority. Tearful carers, who will not be officially informed by Lyndhurst, about the redundancies until a meeting at 3pm today, last night accused company directors of keeping them in the dark. One said: “We feel used and let down. Our future has been hanging in the balance since the new contracts were signed weeks ago. “We were encouraged by our managers to campaign against the council and attend meetings. We stuck up for Lyndhurst. “They have been planning this for days and they have not told us a thing. We have only heard rumours.” In a legal letter written to the council days before it went under, Lyndhurst blamed recent controversial contract changes, and asked for an urgent meeting in a last ditch-bid to avoid liquidation. The letter said: “The implications of making staff redundant will be that some 525 service users will not receive care from the company. “This may result in life-threatening situations for those service users that have a high degree of dependency on the care provided. “The company has attempted on a number of occasions to raise these concerns with Liverpool City Council. Despite these efforts, no constructive response has been received. “The company wishes to avoid any liquidation proceedings and would seek to meet with LCC as a matter of urgency to try and resolve this situation.” But this week no compromise agreement was reached, and the company will now fold. The carers and services users are now being divided between three of the city’s other care providers, Merseycare Julianne, Homecarers and Local Solutions. Managers at the firms and council officers are said to have been working around the clock over the last three days to ensure as smooth a transition as possible. The council says that where possible, patients will be transferred to a new company with their existing carer. Officers were last night contacting as many carers as possible to tell them which company they will be working for from tomorrow. Executive director of community services Tony Hunter said: “Our first priority is the safety and care of our clients. “I am pleased that we have been able to work very closely with our other providers, who have shown great professionalism and commitment during this challenging period in agreeing to take on the additional work at extremely short notice. “Our commitment to providing excellent services will continue throughout this transition period and the city council and its contractors will be providing advice and support, and overseeing the entire process until all of the necessary arrangements are in place. “Every single person who receives care from Lyndhurst will be receiving a letter from the city council outlining the process and how the new arrangements will be implemented.” The city’s home care industry warned its future was unstable after their contracts were changed. The terms meant that carers faced a pay cut of up to 30% and in the weeks after the companies signed up, staff walked out in their droves. But last night, one home care manager said the future would be more certain for the other companies. He said: “A major problem for all of the companies was that we were given less hours on a lower rate. “Now the agencies left over have more hours, it means we will become more viable.” GMB regional organiser Karen Atkinson said last night that unions and staff were still in the dark about the developments. She said: “We asked Lyndhurst only this morning what was going on and they denied they were closing. “The staff are very distressed. Some of them say they have not received the right wages in two weeks.” Cllr Roz Gladden, Labour chairwoman of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, said: “This has been on the cards for weeks and the council did not listen and now there is chaos. This is no way to run a service.” Last night, the director of Lyndhurst, Len Collins, was unavailable for comment. * SERVICE users or carers who would like information about arrangements made for their care or future employment should call the city council’s Careline call centre on 0151 233 3019. READ more news from the Liverpool Daily Post

Top

CULTURE OR CARE?

This article is taken from society guardian on-line.

ALTHOUGH Blair McPherson is from Lancashire Council, he speaks as a general idea based on his experiences in Lancashire.

all thoughts on the article itself is from a capital view front, however it strikes a cord given Liverpool is actually CAPITAL of CULTURE!

Support your local carers, demand that they and the vulnerable people of the City do not suffer even more, just to fund the CAPITAL in the CULTURE events of 2008.

ANYONE GOT A SPARE £30 MILLION?

Capital in culture

Councils must take seriously the social and economic value of the arts when weighing up their spending priorities, writes Blair McPherson

Tuesday June 26, 2007
SocietyGuardian.co.uk

Blair McPherson: 'Culture is a fundamental ingredient in making for a better place to live'

Times are hard in local government. Big financial savings are required. Do we close a family centre or a museum; do we keep small rural libraries at the expense of closing a day centre for older people?

It's a no-brainer: services to vulnerable people come before culture. Or is there a case for cultural services being fundamental to delivering the big agendas of regeneration, community cohesion, social inclusion and wellbeing?

The significance of culture for local authorities is best understood by describing the range of services provided by local authorities that fall within the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's remit. In Lancashire, these services include libraries, museums, arts and archives.

Cultural services are not about aesthetics and taste but about the way communities describe and express themselves, how they portray themselves and about their sense of identity.

Community art can be used to help give a place an identity and a positive image by building on a place's heritage. Art projects can be used to harness the creativity of a community and to express loss, anger, celebration and aspiration in the face of economic and environmental change.

The outpouring of creative energy that was harnessed to help coal and shipbuilding industries adjust to loss and change was invaluable. Art, drama and music traditionally have been ways of rebelling and expressing dissent in a way that petitions, reports, and letters can never capture. Performing arts can provide an awareness-raising experience and connect with sections of the community that are often described as hard to reach.

An example of this nationally is the group of elderly people who have got together with a record producer to release a version of The Who's My Generation, drawing attention to the poor quality of life endured by many older people in society today.

Lancashire has its own sinfonietta, comprised of some of the country's finest musicians. Linked with the Sure Start programme in Lancashire, the sinfonietta puts on baby-friendly concerts. Classical musicians play Mozart live to young children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Cultural events such as music festivals can engage the young or showcase minority ethnic cultures through Caribbean carnivals or Asian melas. Art exhibitions can record a place's past or reflect present diversity. Plays in schools, films made by community groups and radio adverts designed by young people can engage a wider audience in addressing juvenile crime; bullying, binge drinking, graffiti and littering. In this way drama, music and art can bridge the generation gap and bring together sections of the community that might otherwise have no contact.

Libraries can provide venues for creative social activity, especially for the old and the very young. Libraries also provide access to computers to people who otherwise may not have access to email and the internet.

Museums provide the deep mines of heritage from which many communities extract their ideas about their past. In Burnley and the surrounding area, the terraced housing, canal-side warehouses and the large Asian population are all a direct result of the cotton industry. Well-preserved cotton mills that capture the noise, heat and risk to health and safety are not just interesting school history trip destinations, they are how your grandparents made a living and they explain why Burnley is different from other parts of Lancashire.

The economic benefit of a vigorous cultural services policy can equally match the social benefits. Cultural services - museums, arts and archives - attract visitors as part of tourism. It is estimated, for example, that for every £1 spent by Bolton council on its museums, an additional 60p is generated through the economic/tourism multiplier.

Arts development, including theatre, sculpture and crafts, also provides and supports an environment in which creative industries can thrive and support employment. In Lancashire it is estimated that each £1 spent on arts development generates an additional £5 from outside agencies, which in turn generates an economic multiplier.

Cultural services can influence a place's image and have a positive impact on people's view of where they live. An active cultural landscape is an indicator of whether a community is forward-looking, self-respecting and inspirational. These factors can be as important to the local economy as access to good road and rail links and a skilled workforce.

Investing in culture and investing in an area's cultural infrastructure requires local authorities to see the links between culture, regeneration, community cohesion, social inclusion and wellbeing. It requires recognition that, far from being the icing on the cake, culture is a fundamental ingredient in making for a better place to live, work, visit and invest in. In my experience it is not the local politicians who need convincing of this but my fellow local government officers.

· Blair McPherson is director of community services for Lancashire county council.

SIGN THE PETITION TODAY, OR HAVE NO-ONE TO CARE FOR YOU IN THE FUTURE

THESE PUBLIC SPIRITED AND VERY CONCERNED CITIZENS HAVE SIGNED THE PETITION I CREATED TO ASK THE PRIME MINISTER TO ENSURE THE BUDGETS FOR ELDERLY CARE GO ON THE ELDERLY AND NOT THE OVER PAID SENIOR MANAGERS WHO ARE PAID IN EXCESS OF £50,000 UPWARDS UNTIL YOU STOP AT THE HEAD OF ADULT SERVICES AT £130-150,000 PLUS 20% PERFORMANCE RELATED BONUS.
GO TO ACTUAL WEBSITE TO COMPLETE FORM, THIS IS JUST A COPY OF THE SITE.
HOME ADDRESS IS NOT KEPT OR PUBLISHED IT IS TO ENSURE YOU ARE FROM A BRITISH RESIDENCE. CLICK HERE TO SIGN

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Provide more public funding towards the care of the elderly and vulnerable in Liverpool City. More details

Submitted by Tori Blare – Deadline to sign up by: 01 December 2007 – Signatures: 53

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More details from petition creator

The Liverpool City Council are £29 million pounds overspent in their budget for Capital of Culture. The Liberal Democrat controlled Administration have insisted that the Private care providers, sign a new contract for this provision of care which equates to a 30% cut across the services, having the direct effect on the staff and the vulnerable. The same administration has decided to cease the existence of the generic council run home care service. This again has a direct impact on the carers and the vulnerable. We request that the Government ensures the full budgets are released for the vulnerable and elderly citizens of Liverpool and not in the form of high wages for the senior management teams of the caring profession.

Current signatories

Tori Blare, the Petition Creator, joined by:

• pat b
• daniel duffy
• Charlotta Jones
• margaret walker
• Sue Mayers
• Mailytn Sheeran
• John Michael Bramwell
• Chris Collins
• Helen Bramwell
• Thomas McNiven
• Pam Scrimshaw
• victoria wright
• Timothy Hayden
• doreen watling
• pat watling
• Anne Campbell
• MARIE THOMAS
• chris austin
• Katie Fowler
• carol davidson
• Pat Dandy
• Julie Finnigan
• Rob Lacy
• Neil Hughes
• Pat Williams
• Mildred Moahner
• Stori Blare
• Steve Downey
• Janet Jones
• Matthew Eland
• Helen willingham
• Brenda Hincks
• Wendy Smith
• susan healy
• Carolyn Curtis
• Jenny Hincks
• P. Stevens
• BRENDA WHEATLEY
• andrew healy
• Irene Witter
• Nick Wall
• Liam Foster
• Martin Burke
• maria seanor
• Sue Egan
• colin hincks
• kelly sweeney
• Celia Waiters
• Jo Waiters
• Angela Stevenson
• Michael JP Lawler
• Caroline Jeans