The Public branded a waste of money

The Public centre was today labelled as "perhaps the worst example of a gross waste of public money" in a damning report by MPs on the Arts Council.

The report into how the arts are funded heavily criticised the quango for its role in the West Bromwich arts centre, which has cost £72million and ran £49m over budget.

The Arts Council has spent more than £32m of taxpayers' money on the project.

MPs on the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee accused the Arts Council of a "failure of leadership" on The Public — one of the strongest terms of criticism that can be levelled against a public body.

They accuse the Arts Council of huge levels of "waste" during the years before the recession. But today the Arts Council said The Public was "old news" and not representative of the quango's investments.

West Bromwich East Labour MP Tom Watson, who sits on the commons committee, said: "The Arts Council is displaying outrageous complacency and breathtaking arrogance.

"It is unacceptable to describe their role in the mismanagement of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money as "old news" when they have not held a single inquiry of their own.

"They should do so immediately and it should start with the word 'sorry'."

Sandwell Council today pledged it would "never again" allow itself to be put in a position where it would have to act as guarantor on such a project. In the report, the MPs said: "We note that the case of The Public gallery in West Bromwich is perhaps the worst example of a gross waste of public money by the Arts Council.

"The inability of the current chief executive to provide answers to our questions or demonstrate any serious attempts to learn lessons from the failure of the project does not inspire confidence in the Arts Council or its leadership."