Dear Millers – it was three weeks ago that Sacha Lord withdrew his legal threat against The Mill following our reporting about his company Primary Events Solutions. That development followed a week in which we had highlighted how the company obtained more than £400,000 of taxpayers’ money after submitting a grossly misleading application for Covid-19 funding. Arts Council England (ACE) and Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), where Lord works as an unpaid but very high-profile night-time economy advisor, are both investigating the allegations. And we’ve been carrying on our reporting too.
One big question that hasn’t been answered is why the body responsible for distributing public money to cultural organisations was taken in by an application from a security company describing itself as “the backbone of the national creative events sector”. Some have suggested that during the pandemic, the volume of grants being made was so great that staff simply didn’t have the time to do proper due diligence. We’ve heard from people who worked inside ACE who describe high levels of stress among overworked staff in the agency’s Manchester office at the time.
Other questions about the robustness of ACE’s assessment process have also arisen. A few weeks ago, The Mill was told about an awkward coincidence: namely that one of the people assessing applications for the Culture Recovery Fund at the time was a staff member who, like Lord, is also closely linked to Andy Burnham. We were told that Karen Boardman, who was personally appointed by Burnham to lead a major review of the music sector, had been involved in assessing the application from Primary Events.
In the past week, we have offered ACE four separate opportunities to deny Boardman’s involvement and they have not done so. A spokesperson did say there was no conflict of interest or loyalty in the grant of £401,928 to Lord’s company.
The suggestion that one Burnham appointee was involved in assessing a massive grant application from another Burnham appointee has so far not prompted a response from the GMCA. We contacted them yesterday about this story but have not heard back.
What’s going on here? Read today’s members-only story to find out. Most of our reporting on Primary Events was available to read for free, but as you know, our news operation is funded by subscriptions: more subscriptions = more journalists. If you’re not a member yet, please join up now to read today’s piece, get access to our comments and events and support the kind of journalism this city badly needs more of.
Living on the edge of a splendid world
From today’s sponsor: Wild, a brilliant new exhibition at Manchester Museum exploring how people are creating and repairing connections with nature, is now open. Millers have been sending in photos of their favourite wild spaces, including this one from David, who has lived in Edgeley for 50 years. “Two of the three properties I have owned have been on the perimeter of Alexandra Park,” he writes. “In a matter of seconds, I, my children and now grandchild have been able to immerse ourselves into an altogether more splendid world. The three reservoirs were originally part of Sykes's Bleach works (the Sykes family and railways were fundamental to Edgeley's growth), but have been skillfully integrated into the park to the extent that many assume they were an original feature.”
To take part, email us a photo and description of your favourite wild space. Our favourite ones will be published in future newsletters, and you will get a free curator’s tour of the exhibition. Read more about Wild and plan your visit.
Want to be our next sponsor? You can reach more than 48,000 Millers with your message while supporting high-quality local journalism. Find out more.
Your Mill briefing
🏗 Work is underway to establish a Mayoral Development Corporation for Bolton Town Centre. MDCs are purpose-built bodies designed to drive regeneration with powers to acquire and develop land. The idea is they can help speed up work without the bureaucracy, and the Bolton Town Centre MDC is modelled on a previously established MDC in Stockport. That one is credited with supporting the town's remarkable rise to the Sunday Times best place to live in the North West. Whether we can expect the same for Bolton is another question. As Place North West pointed out recently, Stockport was already more affluent, with direct rail links to London. But insiders do tell Place that the MDC helped bring in private expertise and raise the town’s profile, which for Bolton could only be a good thing.
🌳 Campaigners behind Save Ryebank Fields are now calling on Manchester City Council to stop site investigators from the land’s owners and developers from accessing the area and doing survey work. The campaigners, who have been fighting to prevent the Ryebank’s development since 2018, say the survey work is invasive and damages the local environment and wildlife. They have been told by the Environment Agency that the power to stop the works lies with Manchester City Council. Go Deeper: read our piece from last year about the campaign to save the fields, A protest camp, claims of 'ecocide' and ancient trees protected by witches' spells. Welcome to Chorlton.
⚽️ Erik ten Hag, who was widely understood to be heading for the exit as Manchester United’s manager as recently as its F.A Cup win last month, will stay on at the club after an end-of-season review by its board. In fact, it’s understood he might be having his contract extended. It follows what the Times describe as a “haphazard search” to replace ten Hag, who has been in post since 2022.
🎭 This piece in the Guardian is worth a read, about a network of playwrights brought together by Box of Tricks, a writing company based in Manchester. “Amid declining commissions and threatened literary departments, there has been a flurry of dire pronouncements about playwriting, with much of the discussion focused on London,” writes Catherin Love. “Away from the capital, however, smaller companies are finding creative ways to support playwrights.”
Exclusive: Questions over a conflict of interest at the Arts Council
By Jack Dulhanty
On the day that Sacha Lord withdrew his threat to sue The Mill for defamation in the High Court over our reporting on his company Primary Events Solutions, we got in touch with the Arts Council. As part of our “community fact check” that week, we had heard from two sources that our focus on Lord’s application for pandemic funding had left one Arts Council employee in an awkward position.
That employee was Karen Boardman, a well-known figure in Manchester’s music industry who on top of her work at the Arts Council is an artist manager who started her career in the Haçienda. “Karen is in a bit of trouble,” one associate of hers told us. Why? Because like Lord, Boardman is also close to Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham. She sits with him on the Greater Manchester Music Commission, a body created by a special review into the music sector chaired by Boardman herself, appointed directly by the mayor. That review mentioned Sacha Lord by name.
Comments
Sign in or become a The Mill member to leave comments. To add your photo, click here to create a profile on Gravatar.
