THE cost of the opening ceremony is spiralling out of control and has already touched £3million.
That's quite an achievement, since only four months ago the official estimate for the opening ceremony was just £1.3million.
So the cost has already more than doubled and appears to be well on course to treble.
The Culture Company is throwing money at both the event in the Arena and the open air event at St George's (for us plebs, eds) in a desperate attempt to avoid a massive CoC Up.
It will be interesting to see how the city council explains this lack of basic financial control and management when it goes cap in hand to the Government asking it to bail out CoC to the tune of £20million.
It is the outdoor public event which, predictably, is causing most concern.
One of the highlights (sic, eds) is Ringo standing on top of the roof of St George's Hall to wave to the swooning crowds below. (Pictured - waving, not falling, eds)
(And thereby promote his new album Liverpool 8, eds)
But old Ringo is getting on in years now and is apparently getting a bit dodgy on his pins.
He apparently doesn't fancy scrambling across the roof like a teenage cat burglar. Some alarm has been expressed in the Ringo camp at the fate which might befall him.
So all kinds of extra safety measures are now being introduced to try and persuade Mr Starkey that he will be pefectly safe in the hands of the Coc Up brigade.
(If he believes that, he's dafter than he looks, eds)
One of the biggest financial headaches is that the CoC Up brigade failed to hire all the massive plant equipment that is needed for a major outdoor event.
So now they are having to pay over the odds and virtually bribe plant firms to come to the rescue.
Amazingly some companies have told them to **** off, after earlier experiences with the dolts in charge.
Anyway it's clear now, reassuringly, that Ringo never forgot Liverpool 8.
But whether he will be able to find the time in a busy promotional schedule to visit some of the three bedroomed council houses in Liverpool 8 which have still not got central heating (this is the 21st century isn't it? eds) is another question.
The city council certainly appears to have forgotten Liverpool 8.
Quite how many new central heating systems £3million could buy is anyone's guess, of course.
Still, the tenants of Toxteth can always jig about in their front rooms while they listen to Murkeyside or City endlessly playing Ringo's latest album in a desperate effort to take it to No 1.
We're sure that will keep the whinging tenants warm enough.
