Mystery surrounds ‘culture ‘letter

The Sentinel launched a Freedom of Information request following claims that town clerk, Sharon O’Connor had sent a letter to the Minister at a time when there appeared to be disagreements behind the scenes of UK City of Culture.

We had previously published details of a leaked report showing that members of the Culture Company felt under-resourced and under-funded.

Therefore a claim that there were also differences of opinion between the council’s chief executive, who is Senior Responsible Officer for City of Culture, and the Culture Minister led us to ask for a copy of the letter.

But after taking an extra 20 working days to consider whether to release the letter to us, the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure refused to do so.

It said it had considered whether releasing it would be in the public interest, but decided that making the letter’s contents public could prove damaging to the effective conduct of public affairs.

It said: “Release of the correspondence could inhibit the free and frank provision of advice relating to risks by the SRO.

“It is important that the SRO of such acomplex and unprecedented project be able to speak freely regarding concerns and potential risks to the project so they may be managed effectively with funders’ agreement.”

Intriguingly, the department’s refusal email said the Sentinel could seek a review once City of Culture has ended in December, when it might be “appropriate” to release a copy of the letter.