The leader of Liverpool City Council, Councillor Mike Storey, and the Chief Executive of the Liverpool Culture Company, Sir David Henshaw, have agreed to a process of mediation following a row that threatens to overshadow preparations for Liverpool?s year as European Capital of Culture.
A disagreement over the terms of Henshaw?s pension package appears to have precipitated the dispute, and rumours about the interception of private email and allegations of ?procurement irregularities? have swept through the city?s local government in recent weeks. The row has eclipsed the announcement of a new public art project, designed to mark Liverpool?s year of the sea, one of several themed years in the run up to 2008. Shining (pictured) will see Liverpool?s musical and maritime history united in an art project involving schoolchildren constructing a flotilla of ships resembling paper boats out of thousands of unwanted CDs.