What is London Mayor Trying To Hide Over New Year's Eve Plans

1.01.00am GMT Tue 23rd Dec 2003

At last week's Mayor's Question Time, Liberal Democrat culture spokesperson Mike Tuffrey accused Ken Livingstone of a cover-up regarding the £1m pounds being spent on fireworks to mark the New Year.

Both Graham Tope and Lib Dem members of the Assembly's culture committee have asked on seven occasions for a breakdown of the costs of staging the three minutes of fireworks, which the Mayor has failed to provide. The Assembly has had to take the drastic action of using its statutory powers to obtain the documents. Redmond O'Neill, the Mayor's Policy Director on Public Affairs and Transport, has been issued with an official notice to hand over paperwork - failure to do so could result in a £5,000 fine or three months imprisonment.

At the meeting, Mike said: "We would support taxpayers' money being spent on a spectacular display to promote the capital and celebrate the New Year. However, we can't judge whether this is a good use of public funds because the Mayor has failed to provide us with the details of what exactly the £1m is being spent on."

Ken Livingstone tried to reassure Mike that the Assembly would get the information - retrospectively. As Mike pointed out, this would be after the money has been spent! The Mayor also admitted that his staff were still attempting to get sponsorship to cover the costs and that policing plans were yet to be finalised.

"You have had three years to plan for this event - yet less than a fortnight before New Year's Eve we still know little about what is taking place, how it is going to be policed and how Londoners' money is being spent," said Mike. "Will this turn out to be a spectacular damp squib?"