Ministers planning to make Rotherham Children's Capital of Culture despite ... trends now
Ministers will go ahead with a controversial project to make a town at the centre of one of Britain’s worst child grooming scandals the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture.
Nearly £2 million was allocated to the year-long initiative in Rotherham which will feature a series of events to ‘empower children and young people’. But after the Mail on Sunday revealed the plan, Ministers put the decision under review amid concerns about how the public would react.
They have since concluded that it deserves the funding because it would improve life chances and opportunities for children and young people in Rotherham.
The South Yorkshire town hit the headlines in 2011 after allegations emerged of widespread child sexual exploitation by grooming gangs. It was revealed that children in care homes were being groomed.
Levelling Up secretary Greg Clark, pictured, is considering making Rotherham the world's first Children’s Capital of Culture
A report into Rotherham’s handling of the incident concluded that an estimated 1,400 children had been sexually abused in the town between 1997 and 2013, predominantly by British-Pakistani men
A report into Rotherham’s handling of the incident concluded that an estimated 1,400 children had been sexually abused in the town between 1997 and 2013, predominantly by British-Pakistani men.
But despite the blot on its reputation, the city was selected to be the inaugural Children’s Capital of Culture in 2025.
The local authority described it as ‘365 extraordinary days... of imagination, creativity and community. Packed with music and magic. Dance and drama. Films and food. Exhibitions and events.’
As well as the £1.8 million from the Cultural Recovery Fund, it was also due to receive £13,600 from Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and has been awarded £76,100 in National Lottery grants.
But after The Mail on Sunday began raising questions, then Levelling-Up Secretary Greg Clark said he would look again at the funding, which was agreed by his predecessor Michael Gove in November 2021.
Following Mr Gove’s return to the role, the project will now go ahead, which the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) revealed in a Freedom of Information response. It said: ‘The Department has reviewed the process of how projects were selected and concluded that the department had been “transparent in its processes and decision-making on the Community Renewal Fund”.’
The project met the criteria for funding because it would ‘improve the life chances/opportunities of children and young people in Rotherham’, it said. It added: ‘The project has spent
