People think that this is something that should be put to bed, well this shows the demon is alive and kicking.
Other efforts in the country will have missed out. Totally wrong.
Let us list here the good, the bad and the ugly about this event.
Top of the list is we would have got just as much publicity if we had saved money on hospitality. If we had curbed that, I would be singing from the roof tops about it's slendor. However with huge amounts of hospitality (including bottles of wine which those invited took home in their bags) for a select few, this event was simply 'Hey big Spendor'!
Sounds like another "jolly night out"
"As in the past VisitEngland will be inviting guests to enjoy a black-tie dinner followed by the Awards Ceremony. The cream of England's tourism will sample the best of English cuisine and toast the success of the finalists with the finest English wines."
The finalists are:
Tourism Event of the Year
Aintree John Smiths Grand National, Liverpool, Merseyside
www.aintree.co.uk
Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, Bristol
www.bristolballoonfiesta.co.uk
City Events - Polo in the Park, London
www.polointheparklondon.com
Larkin with Toads, Yorkshire
www.larkin25.co.uk
The Tall Ships, Hartlepool
www.destinationhartlepool.com"
see http://www.visitenglandawards.org/awards.html
We must stand half a chance!
More like a Black Lie Dinner...yet another one!
Surely this should be about events held in 2011 - not 2010.
Quote from: christine blakey on April 09, 2012, 08: PM
More like a Black Lie Dinner...yet another one!
Ah well, it's all practice at using a knife and fork! P.S. If it's a formal bash, does Mr. Drummond wear a 'monkey suit'? ;D
The best party the town has ever thrown, what a p**s-up!! Hartlepool will easily win this and rightly so, why else would you spend a couple of million pounds if you didn't want to gain something, this must be the something.
The fact is that they did not need to spend as much on this. They simply took the opportunity because they had a never ending cooking pot of our cash.
The event was badly managed, when evaluating it independently.
The reports that were paid to make it look great were biased and this should be enough to prevent an award of any sort. It could even be classed as fraud! After all we are talking about a huge overspend and chaos through hospitality and poor planning.
So yet another dark shadow area, which should be looked at by the Police. However, our Police Force would not want their statistics to rise any as they are wanting to win Police Force of the Year 2013 (unlucky for us)!
You are correct in noting also that this is out of date, why 2010?
However you reap what you soe and just as they try to get more mileage out of it, they should expect people who care about the town being furious and writing about it here. If anyone wants to know more about the bias in reporting, please contact me.
Is there going to be a Maritime Festival this year? Haven't heard anything so far but wasn't it supposed to be a bi-annual event?
Think they will hop on with the Jubilee events.
Congratulations are due for being nominated, well done HBC for what was a fantastic event.
It's a bit sad to read bitter people moaning about the fact that the event cost a couple of quid as it was worth it, and this nomination proves that it was worth it.
Why do some people just have to moan all of the time, and purvey the attitude that they could do everything and anything better than anybody else? Have they got nothing better or more worthwhile to do in their lives than try and knock the achievements of others?
It's not the event that people complain about, it's the fact that we were told that it would costing us £800,000 and it ended up cost us £2.1m.
I went to the event and enjoyed every minute of it but if you're suggesting that it was properly run by professionals who knew how to work to a budget then forget it.
Put it this way, if at the beginning we were told that it would cost the town £2.1 would people have been so keen. As it was, the total cost of £4m (including grants from OneNorthEast etc) made it the most expensive Tall Ships ever organised in the UK - far more expensive than Newcastle and more expensive than others by quite a margin.
So it's not the event that people complain of but the lack of cost proper control. We could (and should) have had exactly the same event for less money if those organising it had been of a higher calibre.
There will always be those who say that that simply constitutes whining which goes a long way to explaining why HBC is now effectively broke.
Is this MkI... a different mk1 to the original mk1.... or has the original mk1 changed his Nik... to MkI ????
Thank goodness that little conundrum has been cleared up.....
Quote from: fred c on April 11, 2012, 02: PM
Is this MkI... a different mk1 to the original mk1.... or has the original mk1 changed his Nik... to MkI ????
An inferior mind trying to grab some instant credibility and my very own fart catcher!
The pretender has since morphed into another identity...........
We like Michelle's daughter posting here!
Miss Obama ????..... good to know HTH has crossed "The Pond"
No.. but she thinks she is ::)
marky is absolutely spot on. I would ask the new poster to provide evidence which was presented for the nomination, to show that it was worthy.
I have evidence which shows that the event was definitely badly organised and managed. The figures professed for the million visitors, £26.5 million and an unfortunate mis-calculation of parking revenue were not correct.
Businesses stocked up and were devistated when left with unsold stock. That includes the company who had the contract for Tall Ships T-shirts etc.
We had to pay compensation to some in order to keep it out the courts.
Can anyone who reads this let me know how this conduct and mismanagement is worthy of any award at the expense of others who may really deserve one?
The award is for tourisism and not event management. Since it was a fantastic event that attracted many visitors and everybody had a jolly good time I'd say it was qualifies for a tourism award.
The tall ships event was top draw and great fun.
The management of the event was shambolic and wasteful, that is what boils people urine!
As Marky said, if we were told up front it was going to cost £2 million it might be a different matter but to go so far beyond budget indicates some pretty poor control over what is tax payers money.
It seems time and again our money is burned in profligate ways and then we are told the town is broke and people will lose their jobs and services will be cut back, so our quality of life is degraded. That needs to be highlighted when there is clear indications of waste and excess spending on hobby horse activities, and excessive salaries.
Well Put!!
Accountability was not in place. Even brought up by Rob Cook and they all just let it all go under the carpet.
I know there are people without buses today for even the simplest of services, the ones into Elwick might not run passed May.
It makes me wonder if Hilary Thompson was hoping to stand but then had second thoughts?
Tourism is about good management.
We would have had a good time, as weather was great, the parades were great, Entertainment was great, the people of Hartlepool made the event also.
The management was poor. To overlook this with three years lead in was shocking.
That bus service cost us tax payers £3,750 for the first trial period I am told.
Stop focusing on the management! The award is judging the event for the fact that it was a fantastic event for locals and tourists alike. It ticks all of the boxes for that so stop complaining, we have heard it all before.
Quote from: The Shadow on April 11, 2012, 06: PM
Stop focusing on the management! The award is judging the event for the fact that it was a fantastic event for locals and tourists alike. It ticks all of the boxes for that so stop complaining, we have heard it all before.
Do you want the 300,000 people from Hartlepool (who visited the Tall Stories Event) to stop complaining or just the 100,000 who live in Hartlepool?
Only the people who didn't earn out of the £26.2m windfall we had.
That's about everybody then in this town.
I haven't heard 300,000 visitors or the 10s of thousands of local people who attended complain. Just the same old few who refuse to accept that anything good could come from the event or Hartlepool.
If the award was for event management then your criticism of the tall ships event would be justified. As it is a tourism award the event ticks all of the boxes and proved to not only bring hundreds of thousands of people to the town it also showed what we have to offer.
The sad reality is McKenzie is that people like you would rather see Hartlepool on the and in the news for all of the wrong reasons so you can whinge about how bad we have it and how everything is so wrong. God forbid something we should be shown in a good light for once!
Quote from: The Shadow on April 11, 2012, 06: PM
I haven't heard 300,000 visitors or the 10s of thousands of local people who attended complain.
Well you wouldn't would you.
I mean how can 300,000 Hartlepool people (who visited the Tall Stories Event) complain when the actual population of Hartlepool is 100,000.
Obviously the phantom 200,000 have no complaints!
Perhaps your ignorance as to the claimed 'visitor numbers' put out by Dumbo is the root of your inability to grasp the point being made?
Quote from: The Shadow on April 11, 2012, 06: PM
Just the same old few who refuse to accept that anything good could come from the event or Hartlepool.
Well Hartlepool sure did provide enough parking spaces for the throng. Dumbo and Molly got the number wrong by a wide margin.
The monkey then tried to claim the cars did arrive-they just all parked in Hartlepool side streets!
The way you talk leads me to believe you are the type of person who always defers to those in authority.
You seem to be someone who goes around telling people 'they' know best and we should not be so bold as to challenge the latest diktat or question the press releases!
Quote from: The Shadow on April 11, 2012, 06: PM
the event ticks all of the boxes and proved to not only bring hundreds of thousands of people to the town it also showed what we have to offer.
There you go-the only man in Harlepool who believes the crowd figures..........
I believe the "figures" said around 2m visitors. So from actually attending the event and seeing first hand the crowds I'd say hundreds of thousands is a good estimate.
I am sure you could have testified to this too but sadly it would have required you to log off World of Warcraft, actually leave your house and mingle with real people.
You missed a good weekend.
It was great fun...but was it £2 million pounds worth of fun?
Quote from: The Shadow on April 11, 2012, 07: PM
I believe the "figures" said around 2m visitors.
You are remarkably ill informed for a know-it-all.
Quote from: The Shadow on April 11, 2012, 07: PM
So from actually attending the event and seeing first hand the crowds I'd say hundreds of thousands is a good estimate.
Well I have the TV comments made by Dumbo on the first day of the event where he made an estimate on the expected visitor numbers-and would you believe it when they paid a PR Firm to work out the actual numbers they arrived at a figure that
exactly matched the chimp's guess.
Shadow, As I said, top draw event, p**s poorly manged financially = loss to the taxpayer!
Mayor, council et all, are there to ensure financial regularity / protection of public monies and they failed!
I do not think that those two facts are questioned.
The fact that 'lots' of people enjoyed the event, myself included is not in doubt, it was very, very good. The fact the Hartlepool people, you, me and every other taxpayer in the town is out of pocket because it was manged by amateurs, is bad, and beyond contestation.
800k budget, £2,000k spend = someone got it very wrong and its not like it was a surprise = gross incompetence!
Can anyone (honestly) explain it any other way?
I would not be against another go at it, but for god sake under professional management not by people who belong in a pantomime! You can make money if you know what your doing, we clearly just had people running the show who did not know their ass from their elbow! >:(
Exactly Shepherd.
Put it this way, who nominated them?
Quote from: Shepherd on April 11, 2012, 07: PM
Shadow, As I said, top draw event, p**s poorly manged financially = loss to the taxpayer!
Mayor, council et all, are there to ensure financial regularity / protection of public monies and they failed!
I do not think that those two facts are questioned.
The fact that 'lots' of people enjoyed the event, myself included is not in doubt, it was very, very good. The fact the Hartlepool people, you, me and every other taxpayer in the town is out of pocket because it was manged by amateurs, is bad, and beyond contestation.
800k budget, £2,000k spend = someone got it very wrong and its not like it was a surprise = gross incompetence!
Can anyone (honestly) explain it any other way?
I would not be against another go at it, but for god sake under professional management not by people who belong in a pantomime! You can make money if you know what your doing, we clearly just had people running the show who did not know their ass from their elbow! >:(
Agree with every word.
Would you agree with me then that as far as bringing tourism to the town and being raising our profile it deserves to be in the running for a tourism award? Since that is why this thread was started.
We should assess that in terms of the tourism it brought.
We should assess in terms of what we could have delivered the event for.
We should assess via accountability.
I suggest we ask under FOI for a copy of the application/nomination.
If what they have written is true, then let's consider the award.
Perhaps someone can explain what 'raising the profile' means (in practical terms not the PR bollocks)) and can give me a concrete example of a benefit directly or indirectly brought about by the event.
If publicity was the main aim then they came a poor second to the Darwin saga because he is still getting the town a name check in the national press.
Darwin got coverage that the chimp and Molly Doughnut could only dream about..............
Quote from: christine blakey on April 11, 2012, 08: PM
We should assess that in terms of the tourism it brought.
Actually it isn't down to you or us to assess. It's down to the judges.
It's a tourism award Ms Blakey. NOT an event management award.
I cannot understand why you would not want to see Hartlepool in good light by winning a national award for putting on a fantastic, albeit expensive, tall ships weekend.
Cost a lot that award.
I would rather have buses running, than a little trophy.
Swings and roundabouts now.
If you want buses running I suggest you write to Stagecoach and ask them to put their buses back on after 6 and use some of the money they rake in during the day to subsidise them on a night.
Personally i'd prefer that our money isn't wasted on anything. Nevermind a weekend event or lining the pockets of a private, profit making bus company.
Id still like to see a bus that has north tees on its stop route....I have to go there quite often and as a non driver trying to get there for a 9am appt is practically impossible (I wont bother with their 'bookable' shuttle bus - waste of time)
Shadow, as an event it was superb, and it did help Hartlepool.
I agree.
I just wish it had been run like a business??? 8) ;) :) :D ;D >:( :(
You will find that Stage Coach took the buses off because the subsidy was stripped.
Sadly, we had overspent on a Tourism Award by £2 million so not only do the residents of Hartlepool have to pay for that in pounds, but also in a lack of public transport, including to the hospital.
As a resident of H/pool and being lucky enough to be able to pay my council tax unaided (much against my inner feelings) I feel I have a voice on this matter.I fully accept that mistakes may have been made but what a wonderful event it was. It certainly put us (Gods Country) on the map. The whole of the towns people seemed to rise to the occasion.I was able to attend everyday of the 5 day event and as an observer can state that all I encountered were the good people of H/Pool pleased to show the town off.People helped visitors with advice, re bus routes etc.where to eat and the rest of it.Good days had by all.!!! Despite the initial financial loss I feel we should look at the long term benefits. One of the down side factors was to appoint Ms.Durrant a full time appointment with no other major events in the pipeline. Buts thats another story.!!!
Quote from: notenoughsaid on April 11, 2012, 11: PM
I feel we should look at the long term benefits.
Yes lets look at them.
List them for me...........
To MK1....I have no financial interest in this subject whatsoever (except as resident as stated) and as a result I have no list of benefits to the town apart from saying that I am still proud of the event and full of civic pride.The fact that we are still talking about it speaks for itself. If national recognition is on the horizon lets have it. You only reap what you sow.
Quote from: christine blakey on April 11, 2012, 11: PM
You will find that Stage Coach took the buses off because the subsidy was stripped.
Two questions for you then.
1. What was Stagecoach's annual profits last year?
Once you have the answer to the above...
2. Why should HBC subsidise Stagecoach to the tune of £300,000 p/a when as a private, profit making company, they are doing so very well?
Surely if Stagecoach were such a respectable company with the public interest at heart they would subsidise the evening routes with the money they make during the daytime hours.
'Raising the profile of the town'?
I was in a hotel in Harrogate a week ago and upon registering, the receptionist asked me where Hartlepool was! I made the usual joke about being 'God's allotment' and she turned to the assistant manager and asked him if he knew.
He stated it was somewhere up by Newcastle. :-[
OK, not much of a 'survey' I agree but if two people in the 'trade' are unaware of Hpool, despite the Tall Stories debacle, I surmise our profile wasn't raised as high as some proclaim. ::)
I liken it to Newcastle's Tall Ships event;
Enjoyable, but do I keep going back to Newcastle because of it? No.
This town hasn't seen the visitors, businesses boom, job creation either!
It was akin to going to Bali for your holidays...you spend the rest of the year paying off your credit card! :'(
The problem with the Tall Ships was never the event itself, which everyone enjoyed, but the way that it was managed and organised and ran so much over budget.
It was a colossal error of judgement to base the level of spending on estimates of the income earned from Park 'n'Ride; estimates which turned out to be incorrect by a factor of 6. Just think about that for a moment - only 1/6th of the cars predicted paid the £10 Park'n'Ride fee. This was way beyond an acceptable margin of error and yet all spending was based on this 'pie-in-the-sky' estimate.
Let's refresh our memories a little.
HBC had allocated £800,000 to spend on the event. When they approached the insurance companies to cover the risk of the event being washed out by bad weather, those insurance companies refused to provide cover because they could see no sound basis for the estimates of visitor numbers provided by HBC.
The Council then decided to put aside an extra £500,000 from its reserves as a way of providing their own insurance - this £500,000 wouldn't be needed if the weather was fine and the numbers predicted turned up.
Even though the weather was fine, only one sixth of the cars did turn up, the Park'n'Ride fields were virtually empty, the income generated therefore fell well short of estimates and consequently not only was the £500,000 needed to fill the gap but the council still found itself £720,000 short of covering its costs.
Remember, this was not the local workies club organising this event. People had been brought in specially on big salaries because of their 'skills and experience' of organising similar events - and they had over 3 years to do it.. With hindsight, the worky club committee may have been the better option.
Financially, it was a disaster for the town and at a total cost of over £4m, the event proved to be the most expensive Tall Ships Event ever in the UK - a record it still holds.
The spin that followed was incredible from the multiple counting of the same visitors to the £26.5m sloshing around Hartlepool somewhere.
And do remember . . . the incompetents who organised it will be the very same people attending any awards ceremony congratulating each other on a job well done.
Quote from: steveL on April 12, 2012, 08: AM
Financially, it was a disaster for the town and at a total cost of over £4m, the event proved to be the most expensive Tall Ships Event ever in the UK - a record it still holds.
How many other Tall Ships Events have there been anywhere in the UK since?
I'm afraid I've become bored with this subject, I just want someone to tell me we'll never make the same mistakes again.
Just noting about StageCoach as the point has been missed.
What is key is that in the budget meetings to set the areas to cut, the Councillors admitted that the subsidy was sickly SO why did they need a new government to cut budgets in order to realise that this subsidy was disgraceful.
If no budget cuts had been set, Stage Coach would be still driving around non-profitable routes for nearly £300,000 per year. This is bad management to the tune of our £300,000
And on top of £2 million frittered away on parties for the few as the expense of all of the residents.
Goodness me, and some people on here think they have a point of order in supporting a few people who have spent our money as if it is a neverending supply!
Quote from: christine blakey on April 12, 2012, 10: AM
Just noting about StageCoach as the point has been missed.
What is key is that in the budget meetings to set the areas to cut, the Councillors admitted that the subsidy was sickly SO why did they need a new government to cut budgets in order to realise that this subsidy was disgraceful.
Probably had something to do with 13 years of having the Champagne Socialist Party in government with their tax and spend, spend, spend policy.
I think this has been flogged to death many times before. A little humility that mistakes were made would have helped but all we got was spin and a cover up so my own view is that although I enjoyed the event, I would like to see the same people organise another one - a case of lessons not learnt.
I totally agree with you, if you change the "Would" to Wouldn't!!
Spot on SteveL, notinshadow and not4me though I think not4me did mean that those organising event shouldn't, so why did someone get a full time job after a fixed term contract whilst excellent staff got their P45?
I have just been on holiday in the borders.
When asked where I come from I got the follow up ...oh that is where they hung the monkey and then the 'John Darwin thing' gets a mention.
Not once did anybody mention the tall ships in the context of Hartlepool.
Just goes to show how ineffective spending that money was in raising our town profile.
I also fail to see one area in our town that was improved in the long term.
The yellow lines appear to have been the only visible legacy.
S.O.S.D
Whilst out of town, I never hear about the Tall Ships, when Hartlepool is mentioned,
Agreed the monkey wins it every time, with Darwin in second place followed by the town that elected the monkey..
What is this towns problem with monkeys, monkey's have made this town a laughing stock for hundreds of years now and it needs to stop.
You may have not seen this news item re the success of the Durham Lumiere Festival. Pro rata it seems to have produced a similar return to their local economy as did the Big Ships thingy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-17674458
Note that an independent review was also carried out to judge the success of the festival.
My question is, if these events produce such positive financial results, why don`t the government give each council/area some dosh to arrange such festivals in the future as it clearly is a win win situation for local economies???
sorry everyone, a bit of a serious typo there but I seem to have lost the option of editing it to put it right. >:(
The Independent Evaluation is biased.
The contact person/s for the Consultant who get huge amounts of money is linked to who managed the event.
Then the Event Organisers demand that they consider their figures and not to viere off from that.
Therefore the reports are simply a money making scam for the researchers and a pat on the back for the organisers so they are not sacked for gross misconduct.
So it is wrong that the reports are seen as an evalution
Quote from: christine blakey on April 12, 2012, 01: PM
The Independent Evaluation is biased.
This site just gets funnier by the day. ;D
How is the Independent Evaluation impartial?
Quote from: LOL@U on April 12, 2012, 01: PM
Quote from: christine blakey on April 12, 2012, 01: PM
The Independent Evaluation is biased.
This site just gets funnier by the day. ;D
What's being said is true
If you don't agree lets have a debate about it LOL@U
You bring your bull***t, we will show you why what you are saying is bull***t.
Nothing personal
Come on then where are we starting??
There was a brilliant summary by SteveL some time ago which showed the expenditure FACTS.
This was the information that should have been made available to the assessors for any award.
Tourism awards are given for excellence as models of what is good and what should be repeated.
Accessibility and disability discrimination alone makes these less than favourable examples of tourism brilliance.
If anyone knows who nominated Hartlepool for this award, that would go some way to explain things.
Also who will be going to pick up the award and get the credit?
You could try starting with a dictionary, that might help you a little.
Quote from: LOL@U on April 12, 2012, 03: PM
You could try starting with a dictionary, that might help you a little.
Surely you are not suggesting that because the report was called an Independent Evaluation, that it was "Independent".
I find it difficult to belive anyone is that naive.
LOL@U
Spelling doesn't make or break a sound argument!!
Facts do, so lets look at them!!
I think comparing Hartlepool to Newcastle would be a better comparison if it was Hartlepool to Gateshead.
People go to Newcastle because it is a great place, not because of the tall ships.
People don't go to Gateshead because it is like Hartlepool and is remembered as much for the flower festival as we are for the tall ships.
Certain things don't take a shine when polished.
So Newcastle for football and a night out.
Gateshead's a shithole, unless your into flowers petal.
Quote from: notinshadow on April 12, 2012, 04: PM
LOL@U
Spelling doesn't make or break a sound argument!!
Facts do, so lets look at them!!
Spot on! your never going to get 'her' into that argument!
As for
Newcastle v (Hartlepool) Gateshead, I was a Engineering student there 20 years ago, its not even a argument worth the effort, and all I can say is that it was brilliant place to be.
Gateshead may be great but a thousand times more people know about Newcastle, it has the image that Hartlepool or HBC at least thought it would get by hosting the tall ships.
You can't buy history and reputation in a weekend.
Via clever and positive marketing, tourism for Gateshead has also increased with the sage, Baltic and other excellent Newcastle Gateshead campaigns.
When you talk Tall Ships, you have a vision of Newcastle. Cost less.
This is a great camparison to put forward when trying to independently review the Hartlepool experience.
For those who are confident, why dont you send the tourism assessors a link to this forum. If there is nothing to worry about, then there should be no issue in noting the concerns on this site as a source towards an assessment of tourism from the event?
I bet it you looked hard enough there would be neighsayers from the other towns/cities up for the award. Each with their own gripe as to why they thought the event in their town was poorly managed blah, blah, blah.
I am sure that if the people judging this award were interested in finding out how the tall ships event was really managed then they would have no trouble in doing so. I mean, you found it.
So I would suggest that you stop trying to scupper the towns chamces of actually picking something up for that expensive event. Because at the moment people are beginning to sound very selfish and obsessed with constantly talking this town down.
I am pleased that this forum allows people the chance to find out just how irresponsible Staff and Councillors are (not all of course, some really good people there), in wasting so much money.
HTH seems to be the only watching brief on these matters. Although do not agree with sarcastic names and hatred on a personal level, at least we can get the chance to warn those in power that the truth will come out, should you abuse your role, that you will be highlighted should you waste resources and make a fool of the town.
To a point I agree with Shadow.
What's done is done and can't be undone.
After spending £4m of other people money the council want something to show for it.
Quote from: notinshadow on April 13, 2012, 11: AM
After spending £4m of other people money the council want something to show for it.
A promise not to do it again would be a start.
I would welcome the return of the Tall Ships to Hartlepool, but only on the condition the people previously involved with the last event at the council, had nothing to do with the project.
Giving this kind of logic we may as well give a postumous award to the White Star line for all that the Titanic did for Belfast and Southampton
Hey, they have been throwing birthday parties almost!! for the last few weeks.
I hope Hartlepool does win the award, it was a fantastic experience and it cost us plenty and as Stevef say, we should bring it back if we can on the understanding that it is run by people who know what they are doing and the contracts are given to local companies if possible! Because last time the money went out of town!
So we paid for it but we did not reap the benefit we could have done, a missed opportunity! :(
But note as SteveL says, the current team who organised it will be commended, that it what happens with these things. It is fact.
They will then use the award to get the control of bringing the event back, and we will simply get what can be likened to a Provi Loan to pay the millions again. They will justify spending so much money in saying it was useful to attract the award status.
The fundamental reason for objecting to the award is that it was badly managed, lacked equality notice and also cost us far more than it should have done. That is not a tourism title but a further nail in our coffin.
I really feel that the apathy in this town is due to the continued brushing under the carpet or sweeping into the dock. How can we ever learn if big mistakes are made, and there is no accountability?
I remember all the way through the planning of the Tall Ships event Steve Allison kept asking questions about the financial planning. He fore saw the problems; he was called a party pooper and told he was talking the event down by Drummond, Brash and all.
As many have said, the event was a great success; I had a great time in so many ways, however, from a financial point of view it was a disaster for Hartlepool. There is always risk in such events but Hartlepool's spending was significantly more than what other Local Authority's have spent on the Tall Ships race. Some people just got carried away and it was not all Officers fault, some politicians should also shoulder the responsibility.
Hartlepool just got a mention on Newsnight.
What did they say ?
Was it
'Hartlepool home of the fantastic Tall Ships event'
or
'Hartlepool where a man in a monkey suit was elected Mayor.
Answers on a postcard please ..........