COUNCIL chiefs have called for a national review into the Trust-centred governance model of the City of Culture year which they believe left the city’s programme ‘lacking accountability’ and failing to ‘promote Coventry and its people.’
The Coventry Conservatives’ motion for a government review was backed by council leader Coun George Duggins, who also proposed resources for a City of Culture legacy be guaranteed as part of the package.
Coventry City of Culture Trust went into administration in February and the council was unsuccessful in a bid to gain the funding originally offered to the charity for the legacy programme.
Coun Pete Male, who proposed the motion, said although it would be unfair to say the programme was all downhill, the Trust was still left with bankruptcy, administration and the legacy programme in tatters.
He added: “For many the sooner this is all swept under the carpet the better, but we cannot allow that to happen unless we at least recognise the mistakes made and seek to ensure future events do not suffer a similar fate.
“As highlighted by the recent evaluation report produced by Coventry and Warwick Universities, there were significant communication problems, and a lack of transparency on programme decisions led to the local cultural sector perceiving projects coming from local artists were overlooked or not prioritised.
“A failure to manage the budget ended in bankruptcy, embarrassment and a potential risk to the reputation of the city.”
Coun Male added the stand-alone Trust model could not be subjected to rigorous scrutiny from councillors as it sat outside the political process.
He added the wider funding bodies, which included the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the City Council and Arts Council England, all had questions to answer as they had a responsibility to ensure efficient use of public money.
He said councillors should work together to draft a letter to DCMS calling for the investigation.
Coventry Conservative leader Coun Gary Ridley added: “Had the Trust been delivered by this local authority it would probably have been to the benefit of the programme itself and it probably would have been a more accountable delivery mechanism than what we had.
“I think fundamentally there needs to be a review of this model at a national level as Bradford is following the same one we used.”
