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Culture company budget taken over by Derry City Council.
The body charged with delivering Londonderry’s UK City of Culture celebrations in 2013, has been ordered to hand over some of its multi-million pound budget to Derry City Council. Plus latest .. The Director of Communications at the Culture Company has been suspended by the organisation. Garbhan Downey was informed of the decision yesterday.
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Margo Harkin – October 8, 2012 Reply
This whole development is alarming in its timing to say the very least. I watched a business programme last night on television and a point that was repeated several times was that `the product has to be right and in place’ before the marketing can be implemented. The Culture Company has been at pains to give time to people to make their submissions and even then people complain. There has to be a deadline to give the marketing a chance and I see that the Programme and the Marketing Strategy was about to be rolled out so the intervention by the Council in advance of that has caused me to raise my eyebrows very high indeed.
I see how hard people have been working and this shenenigans – which presumably has been going for some time – must be a desperate drain on their time and energy.
What is the role of the Board of City of Culture now? Has it been over-ridden? Are we taking it for granted that DCC’s marketing performance is exemplary? The way this has been done appears, on face value, to be one disaster of a performance. I for one speak out for Garbhan Downey and the work he has committed to the project and to the arts and to this region. His integrity is unimpeachable. I certainly hope there will be no more moves to re constitute the Culture Company executive at a time when we need to be moving forward in perfect unity.
Diane Greer – October 8, 2012 Reply
As a supporter of UK City of Culture 2013, a rate-payer and active citizen in Derry-Londonderry-Legenderry-MerryDerry I am alarmed and disappointed at what has happened. The timing is interesting – just as the full programme of events is ready to be announced and in the natural flow of things – marketing increased.
I am more than concerned about how Garbhan Downey has been treated. This man eats, lives and breathes the city he comes from. He has been it’s cultural and social champion on many occasions.
I also know that CoC staff have been working around the clock to pull together a fabulous year of events, they have consulted to the enth degree. They have had to handle the brick-bats who simply want them to hand over money and to hell with the substance, people who have no idea of the processes a task like this involves.
I hope the right questions are asked of Derry City Council and I, as a person of that place am waiting for answers like many others.
Partnership working and collaboration are often a struggle, but with the right motivation and people everything is possible. I hate to see good people scapegoated and I fear that is what may be happening.
For those who enjoy watching christians thrown to lions then this is entertainment , it makes me sad and mad in equal measure.
Peace Up…..Always!
Citizen Greer