Culture Company Incompetence

[Kev]

LIVERPOOL council leader Warren Bradley last night severely criticised the leadership qualities of Culture Company chief executive Jason Harborow. Read

[Steven]

I for one will be glad to see the back of him. There are many members on Yo Liverpool who could do a better job than him. Let's face it we have our fingers on Liverpool's pulse and many of us actually live here.

[Kev]

LIVERPOOL Culture Company chief executive Jason Harborow yesterday met Liverpool City Council chief executive Colin Hilton to discuss his return to work. Read

[phredd]

Jason Harborow

Who is he and do we, the people of Liverpool, need him ????.
I doubt it.
Give him a sicknote and send him on his way.

Phredd

[Howie]

We believe that Lee Forde is being made the scapegoat for the Mathew Street debacle. The official report has been tampered with. Responsibility for the disastrous cancellation of the Mathew Street Festival lies with The Leader of the Council, Warren Bradley; the Executive Member, Mike Storey; city council chief executive Colin Hilton; and the chief executive of the Culture Company, Jason Harborow. These four men should now do the decent thing and resign.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

>> Click Here to Sign Petition <<

[Howie]

Council leader faces probe over secret meeting
Dec 1 2007
by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post



LIVERPOOL council leader Warren Bradley last night confirmed he held a secret meeting with a former official who was blamed for the cancellation of the Mathew Street festival.

More...


Warren Bradley and Mike Storey face Mathew Street festival probe
Dec 1 2007
by Nick Coligan, Liverpool Echo

POLITICAL watchdogs could launch an investigation into senior city councillors as the aftermath of the Mathew Street festival fiasco continues.

More...

[Howie]

Council crisis looms over leader's secret meetings
Dec 3 2007
by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

THE chief executive of Liverpool City Council last night appeared to question the explanation given by the authority’s leader, Warren Bradley, about a secret meeting with a former council official.

More...

[geoffrey]

Council crisis looms


Great. Something has to be done about ALL THIS CRAP

[geoffrey]

Under the circumstances I hope Joe Anderson tells them where they can stick their facilitated reading on a private and confidential basis


Opposition leader may see report

Dec 3 2007 by Nick Coligan, Liverpool Echo

THE original version of a report into the Mathew Street festival fiasco may finally see the light of day.

Council opposition leader Joe Anderson was told he might be allowed to read the document “on a strictly private and confidential basis”.

Liverpool council leader Warren Bradley commissioned an investigation into why the showpiece festival was axed at the last minute in the wake of its cancellation.

But the inquiry was wracked with controversy when the first report produced by council officers was sent to legal experts so “inaccuracies” identified by Cllr Bradley could be addressed.

It led to accusations from opposition councillors that the report’s substance was changed before the final version was published on November 16.

Now council chief executive 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.”

Source: Liverpool Echo

[Ged]

Lee Forde is not a happy bunny, they must have thought they could blame him and it'd just go away and all would be well

[Howie]

Culture chief expected back at work today after eight weeks off sick
Dec 4 2007
by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL Culture Company chief executive Jason Harborow will return to work today after more than eight weeks off sick.

More...

[Howie]

Bradley’s toughest week
Dec 11 2007
by Nick Coligan, Liverpool Echo

LIVERPOOL’S council leader is facing the most crucial week of his reign so far.

Only two years after replacing former town hall leader Mike Storey, Warren Bradley is having a testing time as the Mathew Street festival row continues to rage.

This week, he might find out if he faces a long external investigation into accusations he broke council rules by meeting former festival manager Lee Forde at his home last month.

He can also expect a rough ride at an extraordinary council meeting tomorrow.

Opposition councillors will use their special privilege to air Mr Forde’s account of that meeting, including accusations the ECHO cannot yet repeat for legal reasons.

More...

(see Liverpool subCulture...)

[kevin]

Living away from Liverpool I hadn't heard all the fuss about the festival being cancelled until I saw it here. Lee Forde's name seemed familiar but I couldn't think why. Just trawled through a stack of business cards and found his. Remember now - met him in London a coupe of years ago and we discovered we'd both once worked at the same place - The NEC in Birmingham. Quite liked Lee and sorry to read he's having such a rough ride over this.
Have councillors anywhere ever put their hand up and said - oops, sorry I screwed up this time, rather than always sought a sacrificial lamb.
Don't know the details of the fiasco and whether Lee is or isn't to blame, but it does seem like he's carrying a can that should have a lot more names on it.

[Howie]

Crisis talks to plug £20m Capital of Culture hole
Dec 12 2007
by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

A CRISIS meeting has been called to discuss how Liverpool can plug a £20m black hole in the city’s Capital of Culture finances.

More...

[Ged]

Web site: www.liverpoolheritageforum.org.uk Contact: email@liverpool-heritage.org.uk

A networking organisation of voluntary cultural societies in the Liverpool area. Please send information about your activities to the above email address. Do look at our website.

NEWSLETTER No 37 12 December 2007

GETTING 2008 RIGHT

Ø Jason Harborow is back at work, after a period of sick leave, as Chief Executive of the Culture Company and therefore head of the preparations for 2008. We wish him well but have to say that if he is to regain the confidence of the people of Liverpool he will have to do better than previously. It’s not just about the cancellation of the Mathew Street Festival. It’s also about what I have heard described by several insiders as “the mess” in Millennium House, the failure to answer letters and the failure to really capture the enthusiasm of the people so as to get the city as a whole, not just officials, ready to make 2008 the splendid show which it deserves to be. We are constantly exhorted by people in high places to be positive and supportive. They should not need to be told that the most of the people are eager to be supportive and will be supportive - once they can see something to be supportive of! The programme of events has some wonderful events in it. We are optimistic that Phil Redmond will make this come right. What is now needed is for the city to look clean and “en fête” - there is some distance to go to get this right.
Ø BBC Manchester has confirmed that a planned programme investigating Liverpool Culture Company’s handling of 2008 has been dropped. The Panorama programme was originally understood to be scheduled to go on air before the end of the year and the ongoing BBC investigation had led to a variety of rumours about the programme’s
possibly damaging content. No reason for the abrupt cancellation has been given, although a BBC spokesperson did suggest that programme may be revived later.

Suggestions that the programme may have criticised the management of the city’s efforts had created anxiety among the city’s businesses and other stakeholders who hoped to profit from the PR boost which 2008 should provide. It was feared that adverse publicity may damage the prestige of the city and the event.

(Ed: Liverpool needs to sort out its problems itself and does not need sniping at by the BBC, which although notionally a national service mainly looks at things from a London point of view. Now, if we had a tithe of the public money being lavished on the London Olympics, things would be different!).
Ø The Chamber of Commerce has been active in promoting 2008 in its magazine, on its website and in talks by its officers. It has succeeded in attracting the British Chambers of Commerce national conference to the city in 2008, the first time it has been out of London for many years. Keynote speakers will be Lord Digby Jones, Sir Terence Leahy and one or possibly more senior Ministers and their opposition counterparts. This is certainly putting Liverpool on the map.
There remains the question of whose responsibility it is to “dress” the city and make it tourist friendly - flags, flowers, “welcome” signs, facilities for using euros and dollars, continuing the improvement in street cleaning until acceptable standards are reached and dealing with dereliction and dirt on private as well as public properties. While the prime responsibility for this is with Liverpool Culture Company, individual retailers, banks, restaurants, bars and other businesses have a duty to the city and to their own profit and loss accounts to play an active part in this. I went into a retailer in Church Street the other day and asked what contact the manager had received about preparing for 2008. The answer: “none” - but he made a note in his diary to do something. What is the Culture Company doing? It is to be hoped that the Chamber of Commerce will continue to nag them into action.
“What has all this to do with Liverpool Heritage Forum?”, you may ask. The answer is that we want visitors to enjoy our heritage and culture so that they will return and encourage other visitors to come here. This will be good for the city’s economy and employment market generally and should increase the funding available to conserving and displaying our heritage and culture. A stay in a city is judged by all aspects of the visit, not just the museums or the concerts.

Ø The Forum hears that passengers arriving in Liverpool on cruise ships are often taken straight off on visits to Manchester and Chester. This is very sad from Liverpool’s point of view. The Forum is therefore working on a simple guide to Liverpool from the heritage point of view and a walking tour which the tourists