My worry with all the City of Culture stuff. Is a lot of people will screw money out of the event and apart from a load of bar staffing jobs most will get **** all out of it. We'll be left with a ****ing big hole and the council picking up the tab for a load of free loading twats. http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Coll...ure-projects/story-28528933-detail/story.html Collapse of £3m Hull charity leaves culture projects in doubt The country's major arts development agency says it hopes to overcome the collapse of a charity managing a £3m project in Hull. First announced in 2013, the three-year Arts Council England grant was aimed at encouraging grassroots creative talent at a time when Hull was still bidding for the 2017 UK City of Culture title. But the resulting Roots and Wings programme under the national Creative People and Places initiative has come to an abrupt end after the collapse of the Hull and East Yorkshire Community Foundation (HEYCF). The charity went into voluntary liquidation last month. It had been managing Roots and Wings, effectively acting as the project's banker. A report by joint administrators appointed after the liquidation has revealed 125 creditors are owed more than £663,000. They include dozens of individual artists and cultural organisations in Hull who were commissioned to deliver work under the Roots and Wings programme. In a statement, Arts Council England said: "We are committed to making sure the local community in Hull is still able to benefit from the Creative People and Places initiative and the remaining funds of £2.4m are protected for use in Hull. "Our Creative People and Places programme aims to bring about cultural transformation by, for and with local people. "Hull and East Yorkshire Community Foundation managed the grant for this programme – Roots and Wings – in Hull. "The foundation going into receivership has resulted in the ending of this activity which is of course disappointing. "However, our investment to date has seen some great work being delivered over the past 18 months, the Long Walk to Freedom and the World of Colour as part of the city's Freedom Festival as just a couple of examples. "Both these projects involved local artists and local community groups and were really well received, as was the outdoor spectacular work Spellbound at Freedom Festival 2014 which Roots and Wings co-commissioned. "In the next few weeks we will focus on getting the process started to allow us to support a new Creative People and Places programme and we shall be identifying and speaking to potential partners who might be interested in getting involved." The administrators' report admits there will be "losses to a number of charities who had placed trust in the company." Creditors include the Freedom Festival Trust and Humber Street Sesh who, between them, are owed just over £67,000. Two Lottery-funded community projects in Greatfield in east Hull and Withernsea are also among the creditors. However the largest debt – worth £321,000 – is owed to Hull City Council. Staff wages were paid directly by the council, which then received reimbursements from HEYCF. Although registered as a charity, it operated as a company under guarantee. Whether creditors will see any of their money depends on the proceeds raised from the sale of the foundation's former offices in Scale Lane, city centre. One creditor, who did want to be named, said: "The whole thing is a mess. A lot of people are owed a lot of money and it looks like they could end up out of pocket." Last month, charity chairwoman Kath Lavery told the Mail: "With regret, the board made the decision to close the organisation down. "Expenditure exceeded income and it got to the point where we had to declare ourselves insolvent." Other trustees at the charity included Hull City Council cabinet member Steve Bayes, his East Riding counterpart Councillor Andy Burton, Hessle-based solicitor Francesa Devine, Hymers College head teacher David Elstone, Hull and East Riding Citizens Advice Bureau director John Dennett and retired businessman John Sharp. After the collapse, the national umbrella organisation for community foundations took the unusual step of distancing itself from HEYCF. UK Community Foundations chief executive Fabian French said: "While we sympathise with any financial difficulties faced by charities, the voluntary liquidation of the Hull and East Yorkshire Community Foundation following considerable financial losses highlights the need for good governance in the sector. "This unfortunate situation has no bearing at all on the excellent work of our members, which all benefit from strong governance and financial stability. "It is unfortunate that this unconnected charity used a title that could give the misleading impression that they are part of our network. "The Two Ridings Community Foundation, which as a member of UKCF is accredited under a process endorsed by the Charity Commission, carries out excellent work in the Hull and East Yorkshire area." A spokesman for the Charity Commission, which regulates charities, said: "We are aware that Hull and East Yorkshire Community Foundation has entered into voluntary liquidation. "We are in contact with the administrators to establish whether there any concerns that need to be addressed by the commission."
I'm inclined to agree with you. I have no evidence to support this view and I don't even live in Hull to see what's happening first hand but over the years it's seemed to me that there are certain types of people who are very good at sniffing out sources of 'free' funds, grants and what have you. Too often these funds just seem to 'disappear' without delivering what they were meant to. I think it's down to a combination of factors including dishonesty, inexperience, lack of accountability.
You probably should've left it at that, to be honest. You say this like there is something wrong with it. This is how funding for the arts and culture works. I've done it myself. You keep an eye on funding sources, and if you have a project in mind which might meet the criteria, you write a bid, which may or may not be accepted. These "certain types of people" are invariably the ones who make things happen, because they are the ones who bring in the funding for projects. Do you have any evidence of these funds disappearing "too often", without delivering what they are meant to? Funding always comes attached with masses of monitoring and evidential requirements, so your lack of accountability comment is ridiculous. The number of hoops one needs to jump through to prove the money has been spent properly is at times bewildering, and those who don't meet these requirements find themselves in big trouble. Most funded projects achieve what they set out to achieve, and suggesting that "dishonesty, inexperience, lack of accountability" is a problem is unfounded. However, I must add that in this particular example of the HEYCF, I have it on very good authority that foul play probably has been afoot, on the part of the CEO. Watch this space.
Fraud - but nobody dared question the running of that charity because it's leader was a larger then life character that had the ear of the establishment.
I am afraid you could well be right, there will always be some try to take advantage, but I think this is very often what happens in these type of situation. However overall I am sure that it will certainly enhance Hull profile which can only be a positive for the future.
A lot was made of the fact of what the C.O.C. thing did for Liverpool but Liverpool, despite some of its areas being in a bad way, was already an iconic city from a historical musical past. I hope I'm wrong but I can't see the level of investment Liverpool achieved from this C.O.C. thing being repeated this side of the Pennine's
It won't be, Liverpool was European Capital Of Culture, which is a completely different and much bigger award, they had almost 10m visitors and generated £750m.
As OLM stated above, the European Capital of Culture is completely different. Hull has been awarded UK City of Culture, which is essentially a regeneration programme, rather than a cultural award.
exactly , we "won" this award not for our Cultural diversity but more the lack of it , or at least being a city that shows much to gain by improving its cultural awareness , which is the reasons the losing cities lost or rather are winning :/ I worry sometimes how 2017 is going to shake out , lets face it we don't champion our city, had the Humber Bridge been located in any other City in the western world , there would have been countless car chases over it , meteors crashing into it and earthquakes destroying it , so far we have had a great fools and horses gag at the toll booth and i think Alexie Sayle might have crossed it in his weird Bransholme movie thing
Originally, if I remember, The Humber Bridge was supposed to be a catalyst for redevelopement on both sides of the Humber and we ended up with one factory, Kimberley Clark. Why? Well for starters old time rivalries came to the fore, East Yorkshire/Lincolnshire, the oar was well and truly stuck into the infant council of Humberside, it didn't have time to flourish as we were part of Yorkshire and therefore allied to the likes of York, Doncaster, Leeds, Sheffield, etc etc. But of course subsequent developements have proved contrary to that belief, as Beverley (or East Yorkshire Council if you like) won't touch lining up with Hull with a bargepole, even if the government believes it will increase the areas chances of investment and developement, nope Beverley would rather be linked to West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire or the North Pole than have anything to do with Hull. The Northern Powerhouse didn't include Hull in its original plans and even rail electrification stopped at Selby, I still don't know what the situation is on both issues. Then there was the bridge itself, tolls were introduced but no, people would rather drive round it rather than pay the toll, which was set to government suggested levels at the time to cover costs and pay back the loan it incurred. Now tolls are at a reasonable level the bridge that goes from nowhere to nowhere has a healthy crossing rate. As for Liverpool having a higher European Culture award, most of the money to re-generate the docks area was from outside sources of investments, and of course the government of the day gave loans. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-21658084 Wrong I was but my original claim is still valid, in no way could Hull hope to get the level of investment Liverpool attracted, we can only sigh at the headline figure of £5.5b envisaged for the scheme. I hope some good comes of this C.O.C. for Hull, the present upheaval of the city centre should come good in time but will it attract investment for future developements? At the moment a hotel is going to be built on the old L.A. nightclub site, as for Radisson, you tell me what's happening, New York Hotel is going then what, a car park? Shops were knocked down on Ferensway many moons ago then what? As for Lord Line etc, pass. Beverley seems to do ok, new shopping centres accolades galore, but, and it has always seemed thus to me, Hull is fighting with one arm and one leg tied together behind its back to get any meaningful investment, the last big dollop was St Stephens. Kingswood flourishes better than the centre of Hull, a figure of £25 million was banded about at the beginning of all this euphoria, paltry in terms of cash seeming available elsewhere in the UK.
You're always moaning about these things, would you rather nothing was happening? Derry generated a £100m from hosting City Of Culture, that's £100m more than they would have earned had they not hosted it, I can't believe anyone can't see the benefit in hosting it. Hull aims to generate a total of £184m between 2015 and 2020, the £25m you quoted it just what's being spent on upgrading the City Centre. The row of shops demolished on Ferensway were prefabs built after the blitz, they were only supposed to be a temporary measure, they were never expected to be there 65 years later. There's a planning application for 100 apartments on that site, though I don't know who's application it is, or whether it will happen any time soon, but the shops were falling down anyway (the same is true of the New York Hotel). Hull has endured decades of under-investment and piss-poor planning, but the fact that we now have an opportunity to address that situation should be celebrated, now whinged about.
And no one else moans, including yourself? What I have stated on many occasions is that I would like to see something substantial happen in Hull to bring it up to some of the developements I've seen elswhere, instead we get a lot of artist impression, we are good at that, but very little else, tell me again about Castle St OLM, how many times has it been put back? This is a major route for Hull and still nothing is on the horizon, of course I moan, I was born in the city and despite some sceptisim by folk I believe it was a better city back in my youth, from a night out in the town to a shopping experiance but since then I've seen nothing but overall decline despite the likes of St Stephens & Prince's Quay. I even moaned at BP some games, mind you so did thousands of others.
It's fair enough to moan about how long Castle Street is taking to get sorted and some of the other things, but moaning about absolutely everything, including talking down the benefits of the City Of Culture award seems overly negative to me. If everyone was to do that, it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy and little benefit would be realised, these these really need to be embraced rather than poo-pooed all the time.
I will continue to express what I see as a once wonderful city declining, am I supposed to ignore the ghostown that is emerging in the Bond St, George St, Dock St, Saville St area of the city centre? Queens Gardens is wonderful, the Marina is great and the Fruit area is taking steps to flourish but now Dram Shop may be added to the desolation in my quoted area. I remember Edwin Davis's being open, Bailey's Night Club was a great place, Arco was on one corner, Manchester and Haufbrauhause and other place pulled the punters in, and what do I see now, emptiness. Sadness more than anything else, but to not say about these things will not stop the reality of what is today's Hull, but what I can't get my head around is why has it happened. Governments? Council? it wasn't always like this, maybe out of town shopping and social amenities have something to do with it, Kingswood and even further afield, you only have to read other reviews in other publications to see that people would rather go to York, Meadowhall, and other away from Hull places, even Beverley, rather than spend their money in Hull and that includes many Hull folk, how many on these threads actuall do so?
You seem to think this is just a Hull problem, but boarded up shops is a massive issue for every major city in the UK (except London), since everyone chooses to shop online nowadays (or use out of town centres), high streets are dying everywhere. Hull's not even one of the worst, retail occupancy rates in the North East, the North West and the West Midlands are worse than ours. Beverley is a small town in an affluent area, it's far easier to maintain occupancy levels and in turn to maintain how the place looks, than it is a major city centre. Even very nice city centres like Chester, where I went spent last weekend, there's dozens of empty shop units available and even their fantastic Tudor buildings are looking tired.
