Liverpool Day - for a few dollars more

LIVERPOOL council is poised to give an extra £330,000 towards flying out the Wombats, the entire RLPO, OMD and the Scaffold for “Liverpool Day” at the Shanghai Expo.

It said the funding, which doubles the council’s contribution to the cost of the Expo in China, is needed to make sure the finale of the six-month exhibition is a “‘resounding success” with a “star-studded” line-up.

And just in case it's not enough, a report said a further £50,000 should be committed “to seize any other opportunities presenting themselves between now and the close of the Expo at the end of October.”

Council leader Joe Anderson said: “It would be absolute madness to march to the top of the hill and then roll down again.”

The money for Liverpool Day was supposed to come from private sponsorship. What with the credit crunch and the recession, it's not been forthcoming so will now come out of the civic purse.

The extra cash has already been allowed for in the council's medium term financial plan, said the report. Some £2.8m was raised in 2008 to fund the city's stand in Shanghai: £2.2m from nine public sector organisations; £380,000 from 43 private businesses; and £300,000 from the council.

The council said there was still a budget surplus of £20,000 but supplementary activities, such as Liverpool Day, would boost the impact of the city's presence.

Here are the costings for the Liverpool Day event extracted from the Cabinet Agenda for this Friday.

(TS = travel and subsistence costs): RLPO TS– £160,000; Scaffold and Musical Director TS – £12,500: OMD TS – £9,050; Pagoda Orchestra TS– £12,000; Roger Phillips TS - £3,000; Wombats TS – £6,000; 6ix Toys TS -£7,500; Sound City Music Event and sound rig from Capital Sound - £30,000; Liverpool Day events overheads - £37,000; 250,000 lapel badge giveaways - £25,000: Legacy gift for Expo museum -£10,000: Shanghai side PR - £37,000.

Those in favour of the spend say it's worth it, claiming Liverpool’s involvement has been a resounding success, cementing a relationship with our Chinese twin city that will reap economic benefits for generations to come and that if we don't follow throuh with Liverpoo Day we might disappoint our Chinese hosts, and risk casting a shadow over all the good that has been done.