APPENDIX 16
Memorandum submitted by Mr Don Price,
Campaign for the English Regions
BRIEFING PAPER ON ARTS AND CULTURE
A recent report in the Financial Times suggests
that there will be little of substance on Culture and the Arts
in the Government's forthcoming White Paper on Regional Government.
For those who have been working on proposals for the size, shape
and powers for an elected assembly in our own regions this makes
little sense. Indeed Arts and Culture is the area where there
is the most consensus in terms of what could sensibly be devolved
down and done at regional level.
It is also deeply ironic that whilst regional/cultural
identity is regarded as an important driver for a successful referendum
campaign and the bedding down of any new regional body, it is
cultural policy that will still be driven from the centre. Not
so long ago the Government seemed to be acknowledging the regional
dimension. A paper published by DCMS in 1998, (reviewing regional
cultural provision in the light of the Government's Comprehensive
Spending Review) noted that:
". . . the importance of the regions under
the Government's new constitutional agenda, and recognition of
the importance of DCMS sectors, highlight the fragmented nature
of the administration of DCMS sectors in the regions, and the
fact that many relatively minor decisions, affecting both Lottery
and grant-in-aid, are still taken at the national level. The work
of the cultural agencies in the regional context is both overlapping
and complementary. They already share the cultural objectives
of promoting access, pursuing excellence and innovation, nurturing
educational opportunity and fostering creative industries [......]
Yet as small fragmented bodies they are often constrained from
turning these shared objectives into joint practical action."
DCMS proposed creating a Regional Board (funded
by DCMS) which would have at its core the Regional Arts Board,
Area Museums Councils, regional library functions and possibly
the regional activities of English Heritage and Sport England.
In the end the Department did not act on these recommendations.
Instead regions find they have Regional Cultural Strategies that
whilst representing a small step towards addressing this situation,
is a long way from what was originally envisaged.
However the force of the original proposals
become stronger with the prospect of regional government. A report
paper recently commissioned by the NE Regional Assembly reflects
on the change of heart by DCMS but recommends that these initial
recommendations are re-visited and that the cultural sector should
be streamlined, "joined-up" and made accountable to
an elected Regional assembly.
Cultural activities, as defined by the current
cultural statement of the Yorkshire Cultural Consortium, touch
the lives of everyone living and working in the region, regardless
of their wealth, occupation, physical ability, ethnic or geographical
origin, political belief, gender or sexual orientation. Cultural
activities can have a powerful role to play within a politically
devolved region, both as a unifying force and to enhance the quality
of their lives. In regions such as Yorkshire and the Humber it
is an opportunity to express identity, history, diversity and
abilities, and consequently the rationale for the inclusion of
cultural provision within the remit of devolved regional structures
is well established.
In this Yorkshire resembles other regions. In
Wales, for example, of the 18 fields that have been devolved to
the Welsh Assembly, at least five can be grouped together under
the label "Arts and Other Culture", whilst already within
England the arts have successful regional structures that have
been established for several decades. This includes organisations
such as the regional arts boards, area museum councils and tourism
boards. Such examples are recognition that the vitality of arts
and other culture has its source in the activities of local people,
and that the structures that best serve the needs of the people
are most responsive when sited in the locality.
Existing and developing regional cultural organisations
such as, Yorkshire Archives Council, Yorkshire Arts, Yorkshire
Museums Council, Yorkshire Libraries Strategy Group, Yorkshire
Tourist Board are in many respects successful. They offer viable
models for regionalisation to people in other fields who are perhaps
less familiar with regional planning and implementation of services.
Therefore the proposals currently being considered by the Arts
Council of England to disband the existing regional arts boards
and replace them with regional offices of the Arts Council of
England gives cause for concern. This may maintain a regional
presence for such organisations but the line management will cease
to exist regionally and will be replaced by London-based officers
who, experience shows, are not always the best people to understand
the needs of people in the regions, or provide them with adequate
provision of services. The proposal by the Arts Council of England
to abolish regional arts boards such as Yorkshire Arts, seems
to fly in the face of current devolution of services within England.
The Campaign for Yorkshire maintains that as
they stand, the current regional structures in this area seem
likely to be easily transferred to a new elected Yorkshire Assembly,
possibly coming under the direct control of a "Culture Secretary"
or "Cultural Committee" within the elected Assembly.
This is largely due to their origins. Yorkshire Arts, for example,
was not established by central Government, but through the local
authorities of Yorkshire themselves coming together to co-ordinate
their arts activities.
In terms of explicit policy areas, it is logical
that the following be taken up for control by an elected regional
assembly:
— oversight and control of core funding
to the Arts Board, the Museums Council, the Libraries and Information
Council and the Archives Council and the Tourism Board, under
mechanisms directly accountable to the elected representatives
of the people of the region;
— establishment of priority policy
areas in the arts, other culture, tourism and sport, and establishment,
co-ordination and/or funding of publicly-accountable organisations
relevant to the implementation of these policies;
— establishment of publicly-accountable
mechanisms for inter-regional and international co-operation across
cultural activities with a view to serving the needs and enhancing
the cultural life of the various communities of the region;
— establishment of publicly-accountable
mechanisms for the protection, enhancement and provision of public
access to the regions' cultural heritage in all its diverse forms,
including its ancient monuments, historic and culturally-significant
buildings, sites of historic and cultural interest, cultural and
historic artefacts, history, literature, landscape, language and
traditions.
In terms of added value the provision of these
services through a Regional Assembly would lead to:
— enhanced regional control by the
people, and accountability to the people, through their elected
representatives, of various organisations that have a direct influence
on the lives of everyone in the region;
— clear joined-up co-ordination of
the activities of the various cultural organisations;
— enhanced mechanisms for co-operation
in cultural activity between the region and other regions within
the United Kingdom;
— new mechanisms for direct international
co-operation in the arts, other culture, tourism and sports between
regions, elsewhere in Europe, and other parts of the world;
— regionally-accountable and responsive
mechanisms for protecting and enhancing cultural heritage;
— reduction in bureaucracy through
the replacement of "national" arts and other bodies,
such of the Arts Council for England, with more responsive and
accountable regional-based equivalents.
10 January 2002
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