LIBERAL DEMOCRAT RESPONSE TO THE MAYOR'S DRAFT CULTURE STRATEGY

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT RESPONSE TO THE MAYOR'S DRAFT CULTURE STRATEGY Mr Ken Livingstone Mayor of London City Hall The Queen?s Walk London SE1 2AA th September 2003 15 Dear Mayor, Liberal Democrat Response to the Mayor’s Draft Culture Strategy I am writing in response to the consultation on your Draft Culture Strategy, on behalf of the London Assembly Liberal Democrat Group. We welcome the publication of the document, which has been a long time in the making. Overall, we are encouraged by what is an ambitious draft. However, we do have real concerns about the lack of attention to funding and implementation, failure to focus on sport and inadequate consideration of the needs of people with a disabilities. Our comments are summarised as follows: , Funding and Implementation - It is essential that the final document outlines exactly how the action plan will be implemented, alongside a detailed funding package. Stating a vision is one thing, turning it into concrete outcomes is entirely different. We were not reassured by the answers given by the culture team on the issue of funding when they appeared before Assembly Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee. For example officers had no information on the cost of delivering the strategy. A strategy that makes no attempt to drive at even a “ball park” estimate of implementation costs lacks credibility, not least because of the difficulty of forming a judgement about its basic viability. Although the need for „partnership? working is emphasised throughout the draft, it is not clear which organisations are fully signed up and exactly how much responsibility each will have in delivering the strategy action plan. We are particularly keen to see the role of LDA clarified in the final document. The role, functions and resources of the London Cultural Consortium should also be made clear. Tel: 0207 983 4383 E-mail: mike.tuffrey@london.gov.uk Fax: 0207 983 4417 , Sport and Mayor Events – Not enough attention is devoted to sport in the draft. In your manifesto you promised a sports strategy for the city, yet sport seems to be the poor relation of arts and culture within the draft, with less than one fifth of the proposals relating specifically to sport. As you know, the Liberal Democrat Group at the London Assembly fully support the London bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. The bid will have a significant impact on the sporting profile of London. It is crucial that sporting organisations are fully signed up the strategy and that the document serves to strengthen the bid wherever possible. The final document needs to spell out exactly how sports improvements will be delivered, both at a regional and local level, setting out what role the Mayor will take and how boroughs fit into the puzzle. We look forward to seeing sport take more prominence in the final strategy and we hope that the Olympic Bid is given the attention it rightly deserves. The final document needs to go much further in show-casing what London has to offer as a world class venue for events such as the Olympics. In the first three years of your Mayoralty, cultural events in the capital have tended to lack proper planning and preparation. There needs to be a wider debate about what kind of events Londoners and visitors want and greater consideration given to whether London taxpayers are receiving value for money from cultural events. , The wider picture - The document focuses mainly on events and facilities in central London and we feel that more could be done to encourage participation and improve access to the arts and sports in outer London. The final strategy should stress the important role played by smaller, locally based facilities, particularly in widening access to the arts and sports. One example of this is local cinema. As you know, my colleague Lynne Featherstone has written to you highlighting the importance of smaller, local cinemas in London and we would very much like to see you using your powers to promote the widest possible cinema choice and to help protect London?s cinematic heritage. The wider context of the strategy is not drawn out sufficiently. For example, more needs to be done to highlight the links between culture, transport, health, tourism, economic development, environment and perhaps most importantly the London Plan. It is not entirely clear how all these strategies impact on the culture strategy and visa versa. We welcome the comments contained within the document on improving access for all but we would like to a stronger emphasis on widening access, throughout the document. For example, whilst the document touches on the issue of disability briefly this area needs greater consideration. For example, the figure for disabled people in London on page 124 of the draft only includes London?s working population. We would like to see the final strategy go further in outlining exactly how the GLA will work together with other agencies to tackle inequality of access. Disabled access to facilities like theatres, cinemas and sporting venues across London continues to be patchy and inadequate. Some providers still think of disability in terms of wheel-chair access. Facilities such as induction loops, subtitling, Braille etc. tend to get forgotten (as does participation in sectors such as Tel: 0207 983 4383 E-mail: mike.tuffrey@london.gov.uk Fax: 0207 983 4417 film, theatre, the art). We feel that the document would benefit from a more in depth look at all barriers to access, from language to disability, transport to cost. We look forward to seeing the work programme of the Disability Network for London outlined in detail and hope that the scope of the Network extends beyond just mainstream cultural activities. Culture and Sport have tended to take a back seat to other pressing issues such as crime and transport, during your time as Mayor. Indeed, your 2001 Annual Report promised that the strategy would be published in Feb 2002. Whilst we fully appreciate that priorities must be set, we are nevertheless concerned that this issue does not slip further down the agenda. Culture is one of your statutory responsibilities, as contained in the GLA Act and it is also an issue of great importance to Londoners, impacting on the quality of life of all who live in and visit the city. We hope that the strategy goes much further than just talking about the cultural infrastructure which currently exists in London. Rather, we would like to see a strategy which presents a package of deliverable improvements – not just a vision. We hope that our comments will be given careful consideration and we look forward to seeing the culture strategy in final form. Yours sincerely, Mike Tuffrey AM Liberal Democrat Group London Assembly Tel: 0207 983 4383 E-mail: mike.tuffrey@london.gov.uk Fax: 0207 983 4417