WM Mayor denies he favours Brum over Coventry for Channel 4 relocation
TWEET HAS BEEN VIEWED BY SOME AS BIAS IN FAVOUR OF NEIGHBOURS
WEST Midlands Mayor Andy Street has denied favouring Birmingham over Coventry after a deleted tweet attracted criticism.
It comes as officials behind the region’s bid to attract Channel 4 refuse to make public the full response to a government consultation over proposals to move the broadcaster out of London.
The West Midlands has submitted a joint response with four possible locations identified as a future home for Channel 4. They are Coventry’s Friargate project; UK Central, in Solihull; DY5, in Dudley; and Digbeth, in Birmingham.
The move could be worth £5billion to the local economy.
The newly elected metro mayor drew criticism on last week when he tweeted a link to a Guardian newspaper article with the message “Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield want to be new home of Channel 4.” The message was an exact copy of the article’s headline, but was seized on by some as a signal of favouritism. One user responded: “As do Coventry... is this the beginning of favouring Birmingham over us?” Another Tweeted: “You’re surprised? Doesn’t give a hoot about Coventry.”
One of the possible locations is the Friargate project. The move could be worth £5billion to the local economy.
The tweet was later deleted and a spokesman for Mr Street denied the mayor favoured Birmingham’s bid over Coventry’s.
He added that Mr Street “backed the regional bid”.
The organisation behind the region’s response to the government consultation is the West Midlands Growth Company – formerly known as ‘Marketing Birmingham.’
A press release on the region’s response has been published, but the full document has not been made public.
The Telegraph asked if the document could be made available to address any concerns about evenhandedness or transparency.
But officials have told the Telegraph the full response is not likely to be made public – citing concerns over commercial confidentiality.
An “executive summary” of the document was obtained by the Telegraph from a source on Wednesday and details of this have been published.
The Telegraph has also submitted a Freedom of Information request in a bid to make the full document public.