VE Day: Council duties under the Armed Forces Covenant
As we mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Geoff Wild, Legal & Governance Consultant, looks at the duties of councils under the Armed Forces Covenant.
Bradford signs 25-year contract for new venue
11/04/2025 Bradford Council has signed a 25-year contract for the delivery of the city's newest entertainment venue, the 3,800-seat Bradford Live. |
Council celebrates Tolkien with new sculpture trail
25/03/2025 East Riding of Yorkshire Council has commissioned a new sculpture trail in honour of JRR Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. |
Council approves £2.5m Rose sculptures
06/03/2025 Barnsley Council has approved £2.5m of funding for three Yorkshire Rose sculptures in the town centre. |
Council chiefs back call for funding creatives
04/03/2025 Local government leaders have backed a call to provide more financial support to smaller creative industries which can ‘drive local growth.’ |
£270m boost for museums and galleries branded ‘sticking plaster’
21/02/2025 The announcement of £270m for museums and galleries is welcome but still just a ‘sticking plaster’ to cover a lack of funding, council chiefs say. |
Hull bids for UNESCO status
03/02/2025 Hull has set its sights on earning recognition as a UNESCO Creative City of Music. |
Council to honour ‘Birmingham legends’ Black Sabbath and Benjamin Zephaniah
22/01/2025 Birmingham City Council is set to honour the members of heavy metal band Black Sabbath and posthumously award a medal to poet and campaigner Benjamin Zephaniah. |
Bradford kicks off year as UK City of Culture
13/01/2025 Bradford saw thousands of visitors descend on the city for the launch of its year as UK City of Culture. |
Art stolen from £1m sculpture trail
02/12/2024 Artwork from a public sculpture installation outside Wakefield Council’s headquarters has been stolen. |
Call for new cultural powers for mayors
05/11/2024 Mayors in England should be handed significant new powers and responsibilities over the creative, cultural and heritage life of their regions, according to a new report. |
Northern leaders form new partnership
05/09/2024 A partnership has been launched between mayors and council leaders representing non-mayoral areas in the North of England. |
Councils awarded £399,000 culture funding
09/08/2024 A place-based partnership involving Surrey County Council and Spelthorne Borough Council has secured £399,000 for a new culture hub. |
Missing Henry VIII portrait spotted in county hall
26/07/2024 Art historians believe a missing portrait of Henry VIII is owned by Warwickshire County Council after it was spotted in a photo on social media. |
Corrie star helps save local theatre
10/07/2024 A national campaign led by Coronation star Julie Hesmondhalgh and her husband Ian Kershaw has saved the Oldham Coliseum theatre. |
Council has no plan to display £6.7m art
03/07/2024 North Yorkshire Council has no current plan to display the majority of its £6.7m art collection after talks about using the former council chamber fell through. |
Wakefield seeks acclaim as UK sculpture capital
18/06/2024 Wakefield Council has devised a plan to boost tourism and gain recognition as the UK capital of sculpture. |
Tower Hamlets mayor criticises removal of pro-Palestine murals
29/04/2024 The decision by council officials in Tower Hamlets to remove murals depicting Palestinian journalists has been criticised by the borough’s mayor. |
Council contractor apologises after painting over Zephaniah mural
08/04/2024 A council contractor has apologized after painting over a mural of the late poet and Peaky Blinders star Benjamin Zephaniah in central Birmingham. |
Culture spend down by £500m
01/02/2024 Analysis has uncovered an almost £500m reduction in councils’ spending on libraries, culture, heritage and tourism since the onset of austerity. |
Dorset awards half a million to local culture
12/01/2024 Cultural services across Dorset are set to benefit from £486,000 over the next three years. |
Culture year to launch with raft of events
02/01/2024 A year-long programme of cultural activities in Wakefield is set to kick off with a day of 24 free events. |
£450k to kick-start library transformation
30/11/2023 A Manchester library has been awarded £453,964 to transform its Grade II Listed building and preserve its historic collections. |
Northern councils join creative coalition
15/11/2023 Local leaders across the north of England have joined leading creative industry figures to commit to developing a ‘northern creative corridor’ (NCC). |
£240m venue launches with Danny Boyle extravaganza
19/10/2023 Four years late and significantly over budget, a new cultural arena opened in Manchester yesterday with an immersive performance directed by Danny Boyle. |
New festival to light up Scarborough
05/10/2023 The Scarborough Lights festival will be launched next month as part of a three-year plan to boost arts, attract tourists and improve job opportunities on the North Yorkshire coast. |
Where’s Wally? Stolen statue spotted and returned to council
29/09/2023 A piece of art stolen in a heist 16 years ago has been returned to Ealing Council. |
New ‘Brit School for the north’ gets go-ahead
21/08/2023 The Government has approved plans for a new Brit School in Bradford, based on the renowned creative college in south London. |
Hull’s city-wide mission to document public art
17/08/2023 Hull City Council is calling on residents and visitors to photograph ‘hidden or neglected masterpieces’ as part of an audit of the city’s public art. |
Dartfort BC unveils Rolling Stones statues
10/08/2023 Visitors to Dartford will now be greeted by a bronze statues celebrating the borough’s most famous rock legends, Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. |
Bradford displays painting ‘undoubtedly’ by Raphael in world first
26/07/2023 A painting has gone on display in Bradford after more than 40 years of debate culminated in the AI-assisted discovery that it was the work of Raphael. |
Over 70 cultural venues set for £60m investment
20/03/2023 More than 70 libraries, museums and arts centres are to be given a £60m boost, culture secretary Lucy Frazer has announced. |
Thanet Council dismantles Banksy’s ‘Valentine’s Day’ mural
15/02/2023 An artwork by Banksy in Margate has been dismantled by the local council just hours after the artist claimed it as his. |
Local arts funding faces £2.4bn gap
08/12/2022 A multi-year funding settlement is essential for helping local authorities support the arts, council chiefs say as report reveals a £2.4bn culture funding gap. |
How art can rejuvenate the High Street by guiding footfall
07/07/2022 Chloe Brown outlines how East Staffordshire Borough Council is using art and cultural activities to bring more visitors to its town centres. |
Over 100 places to receive targeted arts funding
24/02/2022 Over 100 places that have been previously overlooked or neglected will be prioritised for arts funding. |
Council spending on the arts has halved since 2010
04/02/2022 Local authority expenditure on cultural services has fallen by 50% across England since 2009-2010, according to new research. |
Council chiefs welcome plan to support creative arts
17/09/2021 Local authorities are in a ‘unique position’ to support the creative arts and culture sector in their local areas, council chiefs say. |
Council installs security to protect suspected Banksy
20/08/2021 A district council has installed extra security around some graffiti that is thought to be a Banksy. |
Government should provide £500m arts resilience fund, says study
08/09/2020 The Government should devolve power over arts funding to councils and make a resilience fund available to support art and culture in local areas, report says. |
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Protecting art in a crisis
27/07/2020 Tiffany Cloynes and Clare Hardy outline how local authorities can play an important part in enabling arts and culture to flourish in their areas. |
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Art charity announces £2m to support museums and galleries
17/06/2020 Museums and art galleries are to receive a much needed funding boost to help them weather the impact of Covid-19. |
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Arts council announces £160m of ‘emergency funding’
25/03/2020 Council chiefs have welcomed the announcement of a multi-million-pound injection of funding to support the arts sector during the coronavirus pandemic. |
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Winners announced for Hearts For The Arts Awards 2020
14/02/2020 A Windrush festival and a theatre company helping those affected by addiction are among the winners of this year's Hearts for the Arts awards. |
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TPA hits out at council art collections
04/12/2019 The Tax Payers’ Alliance has also hit out at councils across the UK for owning art collections worth nearly £1.9bn and only displaying less than a third of the pieces. |
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Whitehall announces £250m of culture spending
14/10/2019 The Government has announced £250m of funding for cultural projects, libraries, museums and the creative industries after a decade of cuts. |
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Ed Sheeran calls for public funding of 'aspiring artists'
29/05/2019 Chart-topping singer songwriter Ed Sheeran has joined industry leaders to warn that home-grown artistic talent could disappear without public funding. |
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Five areas to share £20m cultural development fund
18/01/2019 The five areas to receive £20m of funding to invest in culture have been unveiled by the Government. |
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Manchester to double its contribution to arts venue
06/11/2018 Manchester City Council is set to more than double its contribution to delivering a new arts venue after the cost of project rose by nearly £20m. |
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£5m scheme to help young people access the arts launched
02/10/2018 The Government has announced the establishment of five Youth Performance Partnerships to give young people greater access to the performing arts. |
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New guide encourages cooperation between arts and health sector
04/10/2017 A new guide aims to encourage people in the arts and health services to work together to prevent illness and improve wellbeing. |
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Online hub created for councils to share innovative ways to invest in culture
17/08/2017 Financially-squeezed councils can now access a specialised online hub designed to help them share innovative ways to invest in culture. |
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Arts and culture funding to be shifted away from the capital
05/10/2016 Funding for arts and culture outside of London will be increased by 4% by 2022, Arts Council England has announced. |
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Councils cutting arts and culture budgets by nearly a fifth, finds report
13/04/2016 Investment in arts and culture by local authorities has fallen by £236m since 2010, a new report has revealed today. |
