Plans in motion for Coventry’s City of Culture legacy

Coventry City of Culture’s Legacy programme could continue, as the Council works with local cultural leaders on a plan.

It’s after the group responsible for overseeing the project faced financial difficulty and went into administration earlier this year.

Coventry City Council is now working on a "Cultural Strategy Refresh" with local partners and funders.

Councillor David Welsh, who is leading the project, said he is "quite positive" about what they can do in the city.

He explained: "We're committed to making sure that the legacy continues and we're doing it in a different way. We're having conversations with cultural leaders in the city now about how that will look.

"I'm quite positive about what we can do in the city. They’re the culture sector already having the conversations and looking about how they can support each other."

A plan for the new Legacy programme could be set in motion as early as this year.

Councillor David Welsh said: "We’ll be looking to make announcements on it very soon. The Council will look at what commitments we can make to drive it forward."

The Culture Trust, which led the year-long event and was overseeing planned legacy projects, is currently under investigation as there were concerns about its use of public money.

The body is unable to repay creditors over £4m – including £1m loaned by Coventry Council.

Councillor Welsh explained: "I've tried to say to people that I don't want us to lose sight of the positives that came out of City of Culture. But one of the things that we have to acknowledge is that not everything was good.

"We have to make sure we learn from that and take that forward, and that's really where I am with it. Overall, the City of Culture Trust had a number of challenges, one of them being trying to deliver a year during Covid. I'm never going to knock them for that."