With no direct funding coming from the EU and a raft of exciting projects promised in its bid, the city of Liverpool, and the Liverpool Culture Company in particular, must have wondered whether its successful efforts to be crowned European Capital of Culture 2008 had really been worth the trouble.
Several other bidding cities ? especially those short-listed ? tell miserable stories of heightened expectations and expensive bidding processes, without public funding to pay for it all. So, while the recent announcement of the Government?s Urban Cultural Programme (p1) is being welcomed (probably with a fair degree of relief), it also raises a few important issues: Tessa Jowell?s letter to her favoured bidders, coupled with a truncated application period, implies a bending (but not a flagrant flouting, of course) of the very Lottery rules she refers to. The odds of any city other than those who entered the Capital of Culture bidding race actually being awarded anything other than commiserations from the new programme organisers seem to be a little slim. But despite this, in her speech this week, given, appropriately enough, in Liverpool, Estelle Morris encouraged local authorities to bid for money from the new fund. By acknowledging that they will need to ?get a move on? she highlights the flaws of a system that can spring funding pots open and then slam them shut again before any truly democratic organisation could possibly get its act together to apply. In the case of the new Urban Cultural Programme, applications are being invited over a five-week period; yet the scheme will only accept bids of over £0.5m. We?d love to hear from any local authorities (not one of the original 12 bidders) that manage to hit the deadline; and even more delighted to hear whether their bids are ultimately successful.
Published: 22-03-2004