Chief reporter David Bartlett asks Liverpool’s civic leaders what legacy Capital of Culture will give to the city.

VIRTUALLY all civic leaders in Liverpool agree that 2009 will not, and cannot, live up to the highs which the city has reached during its Capital of Culture year.

From the La Machine Spider which prowled the streets in September, to the opening of the £1bn Liverpool One shopping development, and Sir Paul McCartney playing Anfield, there have been many highlights on a grand scale.

The success of the year has led to a heightening of expectations in Liverpool, an issue that Culture supremo Phil Redmond is acutely aware of.

“The big job is managing people’s expectations both negative and positive as we move forward,” he said.

“It will feel like the night after a party. But we all know what that’s like. We have to take the experience and memory and build on it.

“What’s obvious is that there is still a sense of excitement and willingness – there is a hunger from people for it to go on.

“We can continue if we remember what we have got and work together collectively and collaboratively.

“What I want to do next year is not go home after 14 months of work, but I want to still play a role as an advocate to encourage and cajole.”

He wants all the cultural organisations across the city – like the Philharmonic Hall, the Tate, National Museums Liverpool (of which he is now the chairman) – to continue to work together.

“I do not have an agenda, but I still think there is a role I can play.

“We have an opportunity to keep people talking. I think that’s how we will carry on the legacy.”

He believes it was a great piece of inspiration to use Capital of Culture as a focal point for the coming together of a large number of developments in the city – Liverpool One and the Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre.

In 10 years’ time, the creative director of the Culture Company, who gave Brookside and Hollyoaks to the world, would like there to be a more solid creative industries economy in the city.