THE director of National Museums Liverpool believes the new museum being built on the city’s waterfront will be “witty, cocky, funny, genuine, honest and not full of clichés”.

Dr David Fleming said more than 10,000 local people had been consulted on the £72m project, and he was confident it would be a museum the city could be proud of.

Speaking before yesterday’s row over the disbanding of the Friends of National Museums Liverpool, Dr Fleming also revealed NML had set a target of welcoming 3m visitors through its doors by 2011.

The new museum has just hit the important milestone of becoming a watertight building, and 95% of its cladding has now been fixed on.

In September, contractors will hand over the completed article, but it will take between 12 and 15 months to fit out the 8,000 sq m interior with four themes – Global City, Creative City, Port City and People’s City.

Dr Fleming said: “I think it looks fantastic. There was some controversy over the two different types of stone, we always felt it was a non-issue because they were both quality stones.

“It looks fabulous, as the sun comes up it starts to glimmer, and as the sun moves round in the day the building seems to be in a state of movement.”

During 2008, NML recorded its highest-ever visitor number, of 2.7m.