Keeping the Key is not a council success

I S’ve got to hand it to Peterborough City Council - it has got some brass neck. ast week it put out a press released entitled, “Council announces its success in securing new operator for city’s Key Theatre.’’ I kid you not! uccess? Are they for real?

ow while I, like most residents, am delighted that the show will go on at the Key to hear the city council slap its own back is the worst case of double speak since Boris Johnson last opened his mouth.

he council closed it (not Boris’s mouth, the theatre!) for goodness sake!

ut there’s more - Coun Steve Allen, the cabinet member responsible, told us how the council had “worked round the clock’’to get a deal done.

ow I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt in that it was a figure of speech rather than a literal claim.

ut he does realise, doesn’t he, that most of us, not least the doctors and nurses and care home staff at the sharp end of the pandemic, work hard too?

NTBNBLe then went on to brag: “However, we have always maintained that we would do everything possible to keep the venue open, and this agreement demonstrates how we can maintain services without spending taxpayers’ money!

“We have made good on that commitment today with this announcement on the future of the Key Theatre.”

he city council is not ‘maintaining services’ - it axed the theatre.

ellador is maintaining

HTSBut, hang on, before the city council hangs a cultural strategy on this accolade it should be noted that Huddersfield came third – a fine town which gave birth to rugby league, but trendy? And there’s more madness, London was 27th, six places behind Warrington. Bristol, Nottingham and Liverpool ranked even lower. So the next time Peterborough comes top (or is that bottom?) in that annual worst places to live survey just remember these surveys are utter nonsense. the service.

hat the council has done is like chucking a man overboard into the North Sea, watching somebody else (Sellador) throw out a lifejacket and then taking credit for saving his life.

his is not a dramatic rescue, it’s a farce.

nd in other news the council is now planning to do away with the Christmas lights and the library service is going to be ‘remodelled’.

his levelling up schtick is going well, isn’t it!

WTAT

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