THE famous Mathew Street Festival is to go ahead after all, city council leader Warren Bradley has announced.

 The dramatic U-turn, to be officially unveiled by Cllr Bradley on Monday, followed a day of emergency talks after world-wide outrage at the scrapping of the August Bank Holiday music event.

Moves to salvage the festival event around the Cavern Quarter were still taking place last night, and will continue throughout the weekend.

Cllr Bradley, speaking from the Canary Islands where he is on a family holiday, told the Daily Post: “Not staging the festival is not an option for me and it will go ahead. There is talk about moving it to one of our parks, but my view is that takes away the ambience of what it is all about and I want it in the city centre and that is where it will be.

“I will be meeting officers first thing on Monday morning to start making the arrangements to make it happen.”

The rescue package emerged at a meeting of Liverpool City Council’s executive board when veteran councillor Flo Clucas won unanimous backing to save this month’s event, acting with backing from Cllr Bradley.

The rescue package will see a modified festival seized from the grip of the Liverpool Culture Company and handled instead by a hand-picked team under the control of the city council.

It is almost certain to be headed by council event organiser Judith Feather, as predicted exclusively in yesterday’s Daily Post.

Council chief executive Colin Hilton and culture chief Jason Harborow spent yesterday in a series of meetings. The most crucial was with Merseyside Police to discuss banning the sale of alcohol from street bars during the festival.

Councillors held a dawn meeting in advance of the executive board at the town hall and most of the senior politicians could not disguise their fury at Thursday’s shock announcement that the crowd-pulling event would have to be scrapped on health and safety grounds.

Council leader Bradley has already been briefed about the rescue plan and will hold talks immediately when he returns this weekend.

He said: “In the last 24 hours, since being made aware of the Mathew street festival situation, I have been working tirelessly with senior Liberal Democrat councillors, local business, and council officers to come up with a plan to ensure that the Mathew Street Festival takes place.

“In these discussions, I have suggested a series of proposals for how some of the health and safety issues outlined in the Capita report can be overcome, and how the concerns expressed by the police and emergency services can be alleviated.

“That the alcohol street licence be withdrawn to prevent members of the public drinking in the city’s open spaces. Ensuring that pubs, clubs, bars, cafes and restaurants can continue to serve alcohol on licensed premises.

“That the children’s fun fair be relocated to a nearby park to ensure their safety.

“Health and safety remains paramount to this administration whilst ensuring that the entire city and its visitors can enjoy a full bank holiday celebration with the Mathew Street Festival at the heart of those celebrations as this Liberal Democrat administration had always intended.”

Cllr Clucas spoke about the blow of the cancellation to the city in its 800th birthday year, which is also the 40th anniversary of the release of the Sgt Pepper’s album and the 50th anniversary of the first meeting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Fury of the council's executive board > > >