Culture Company hopes to attract £23.3 million

No central Government funding for UK City of Culture 2013 has been made available from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in England, which ran the inaugural competition, so all the money for the jamboree will be diverted from local authority and Stormont budgets.

Although the ILEX Chief Executive boss originally came up with the idea of applying for UK City of Culture the people of Londonderry own the Culture Company and will directly contribute £4.1m to its running costs over the next two years.

However, the company hopes to attract a grand total of £23.3m from a variety of sources by the time it is finished.

A whopping £2.8m will be spent on advertising and marketing; £2.208,000 will be spent on current costs including paying the Company’s 18 staff; and the vast majority of £18,450,000 will be spent on event programming.

Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín explained that her Department has committed £12.6m to the project over 2012/ 13 and 2013/ 14 but that the company, which has a current staff complement of 18, hopes to attract a total budget though sponsorship and various funders of £23.3m.

Ms Ní Chuilín explained: “The Culture Company is expected to wind up in June 2014. A core complement of staff will remain after December 2013 to ensure an appropriate handover period for legacy actions and to undertake post project evaluation as well as the finalisation of funding claims, the annual reporting for 2013/14 and the administration around the dissolution of the company.”

She added: “The Culture Company aim to attract sponsorship, receipts and allocations from funders totalling £23.3m to deliver the Cultural Programme of events.

“DCAL have committed to provide £12.6m in 2012/ 13 and 2013/ 14. Derry City Council funding for the City of Culture Project will be up to £4.1m, including the Clipper Festival which it is directly managing, and the Council has approved a contingency for unforeseen costs subject to approval in advance to utilise this contingency.

“Derry City Council has funded all running costs to date and has committed to funding the full running costs of the Company.”

SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey asked the Minister to detail the projected staff complement within the Culture Company 2013 Limited for each of the next three years.

She stated: “The current core staff complement of the Culture Company is 18 people including the CEO and administrative, operational, finance, marketing and communication and programming staff. There are also 2 people on secondment into the organisation.

“There are no plans for the core complement to change during the next 3 years, however, Derry City Council will consider resource needs as the project progresses.”

She made it clear that Londonderry ratepayers will be paying the wages for the duration of the company’s existence.

“Derry City Council, as owner of the Culture Company and licencee of Derry~Londonderry City of Culture 2013 are responsible for funding the core staff complement of the Culture Company.

“Derry City Council have deployed a member of the Council’s internal audit team to work with the Company on a part time basis. Any requirements for additional core staff will be met by Derry City Council.

“In addition to the Culture Company’s core complement, a number of personnel will be contracted to undertake events management, project management, production and technical roles in the run up to and during 2013.”