David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

18 October 2007 

LIVERPOOL Culture Company has paid more than £320,000 to a London public affairs firm to promote the city over the last two years.

Last night it emerged FD-LLM has been paid £323,758 since July 2005, almost £12k a month, for lobbying and staging networking events.

It also emerged £35,000 was paid to Kent company Strange Cargo for a giant Beatles-inspired sculpture on wheels called “Jude”, for the city’s 800th birthday pageant celebrations.

Labour group leader Joe Anderson has now called a meeting with the district auditor to scrutinise the way the Culture Company has spent money. But the council insists the work of FD-LLM was “vital” in raising Liverpool’s profile as European Capital of Cul-ture 2008 amongst influential Westminster and Whitehall audiences.

Liberal Democrat council leader Warren Bradley said FD-LLM provided engagement between senior figures from the city and London based politicians. It also established the Liverpool 2008 All-Party Parliamen-tary Group in December 2005, which included prominent politicians like former Conservative leader Michael Howard.