Resignations call over festival fiasco

Aug 20 2007 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

THE fallout from the cancellation of the Mathew Street Festival refused to go away last night after the Labour leader demanded resignations.

Cllr Joe Anderson said council leader Warren Bradley, council chief executive Colin Hilton, or the chief executive of the Culture Company, Jason Harborow, should do the “honest and honourable thing”.

“Somebody has to take ultimate responsibility,” he said.

“It’s cost the city hundreds of thousands of pounds, and Liverpool’s reputation has been damaged locally, nationally and internationally.

“Our reputation has been damaged at a crucial time in our birthday year, and somebody has to accept responsibility for that.

“The inquiry being led by the chief executive is not going to give us the answers to who should be responsible.

“He clearly states in a letter to me that the decision was taken under delegated powers in consultation with the leader and deputy leader.

“He was involved in the decision, how can he conduct an inquiry and blame the council?

“We have to have an independent inquiry.”

He said the city’s reputation demanded that someone took responsibility and resigned.

“Somebody, whether it’s the leader of the council, the chief executive, or the chief executive of the Culture Company has got to go.

“They were the captains of the ship. It happened on Cllr Bradley’s watch, he can’t wash his hands of it.

“If this was the private sector someone would have to take responsibility.

“When Cllr Bradley said he refused to put his name on the press release that was an abdication of responsibility.

“He should have said ‘that press release is not going out, I will sort this out when I come home’.”

“If he was told everything was fine and we could go ahead with the festival those people should be sacked.

“I want to see written evidence of who it was that was saying everything was OK.”

Cllr Bradley said: “There is an internal investigation going on into the Mathew Street situation. We will not pre-empt what will come out in that investigation which I am confident will be fair and thorough.”

A REDUCED festival will take place this weekend with bands performing at 40 venues in the city, but no outside events are scheduled to take place.

davidbartlett