Legacy of 2008

Oct 1 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

SO, AFTER holding our collective breath, the culture people have finally unveiled their programme for 2008.

Correct as ever, I predicted they would produce a satisfactory programme, and indeed they have. Will we all be raiding our piggy banks to rig ourselves out with new outfits for the coming year? Let’s put it this way, if Mr TJ Hughes expects me to be in his queue in the January sales for a bargain suit, he will be disappointed.

Like many others, I will pop along to some of the events, and no doubt have a jolly good time. Some of the big-name events, however, will burn a hole in the pockets of those willing, or able to pay.

On the day the Culture Company people waxed lyrical about their wonderful programme, I studied the Government’s latest unemployment figures for Liverpool. It is a horror story in the making.

In Riverside constituency – essentially the city centre and a large slice of the inner-city areas – over 41% of adults are officially classed as economically inactive. This means they are on the dole, receiving other benefits or not working for other reasons.

Liverpool, European Capital of Culture, has the highest unemployment rate of any other town or city across the entire North West, and in some areas the high number of people living on benefits takes on skyscraper proportions compared to our regional neighbours.

The promise of thousands of jobs on the back of the culture programme is not only welcome, it is desperately needed.

We can be sure that, despite being hailed as a community festival, many will be excluded because they will be frozen out by ticket prices.

I hope those same people will be content that there are going to be so many free events. I say free with reservation, because they are not free.

The tab for those events may well fall on the shoulders of council taxpayers.

By the time the culture people shut up shop next year, citizens will have poured around £70m into the cultural jamboree.

We are told it will bring millions of visitors, and indeed some one-off events will attract mass audiences. But the growth in our tourism owes far more to Easyjet and Ryanair than it does to the Culture people.

Should those low-cost airlines pull the plug on mainland Europe routes, the number of visitors will fall accordingly. Our hope is that they will expand the network of their flights and bring in more and more people.

Similarly, the Duke of Westminster’s Paradise Street project will attract thousands of new shoppers and leisure seekers to the city centre.

Consultants have already been hired to determine the lasting legacy of our Culture year, and my contention remains that hosting the title will have little impact on what happens beyond 2008. But I will wager that their expensive report will not dare say that.