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Mello Mello facing threat of closure
Liverpool's arts community rally round Mello Mello as the popular arts hub faces threat of closure.
Mello Mello Cafe is facing the threat of closure resulting in the loss of jobs and one of Liverpool city centre's finest arts hubs.
Mello, based on the corner of Slater Street, is home to a thriving community of artistic creatives with the Cafe hosting gigs, talks, a dance group, theatre company, recording studio, rehearsal room as well as being one of the city's best loved places to eat and drink.
However, all that could change with the news that it is now facing immediate closure.
The news was revealed this afternoon when a press release landed stating Liverpool City Council has reduced MelloMello CIC's business rates relief from 80% to 0%.
MelloMello CIC state that the Council have also 'demanded £30,000 a year,' which will effectively force the venue into administration.
A petition was quickly set up to save Mello Mello from possible closure and fight the Council's action and within minutes of it being online over 1000 signatures had been accrued.
Social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter, were awash with disbelief, shock and anger with support for Mello Mello widespread.
Dorothy Wave, from Liverpool band a.P.A.T.t, said: 'This is ridiculous. Make sure you sign this if you value independent, creative spaces.'
While Veslemøy Holseter, of Merseyside band Wet Mouth, added: 'Why is Liverpool City Council so determined to cripple its own arts scene which is one of its biggest resources and means so much to so many? I just cant understand it. This seriously pisses me off, Sign the petition!
It goes without saying, that Getintothis, rates Mello Mello as highly as any other venue in Liverpool.
While providing some of the finest music and entertainment offerings the city has to offer, it is Mello's ethos and it's staff's fierce independence which ensures there's quality and an integrity behind the business which ultimately make it a venue worth fighting for.
We love it so much, it became our second home for six months while launching the GIT Award, with all the Liverpool-based judges meeting regularly - enjoying the fine food, drink and entertainment the cafe has to offer.
Following the sad loss of Static Gallery's live music programme (they've today launched a Static Social to coincide with the Biennial) - again through Liverpool City Council's policy enforcers, the loss of Mello Mello would be devastating.
Getintothis urges readers to support this independent bastion of the arts and sign this petition.
Finally, here's a statement from Mello Mello read: 'Liverpool City Council is set to force MelloMello CIC out of business. We will NOT let this happen.
'We will fight Liverpool City Council's unjustified and unexpected decision to slash our business rates relief from 80% to 0%, to demand £30,000.00 a year and force MelloMello into administration. We intend to explore every possible avenue available to us as Liverpool City Council have left MelloMello CIC, its employees, its customers, its users, its local community with nothing left to lose other than everything.
'MelloMello was founded, run and staffed by volunteers who have turned a previously derelict building into a vibrant artistic hub of activity and business. The closure of MelloMello will result not only in the loss of facilities for grassroots artistic endeavours but also the loss of over 20 jobs, the loss of trade for other local independent businesses, and the loss of income of ANY business rates for the Council.
'MelloMello has never received funding, grants, sponsorship or investment in order to grow. The success of MelloMello is that it has grown out of, quite literally, nothing into one of the city's favourite bars/restaurants/venues.
'For the Council to force MelloMello out of business by taking away the only charity it has ever relied upon sends out a clear message of cultural indifference, a blatant lack of acknowledgement for the people who have managed to build a sustainable not-for-profit business out of nothing, and serves as yet another affront to Liverpool's musical, artistic and creative communities.
'MelloMello is worth saving, because once it is gone you will never see anything like it again.
'We must ACT NOW to SAVE MELLOMELLO, we must let Liverpool City Council know that MelloMello WILL NOT CLOSE DOWN without a FIGHT.
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Getintothis Blogger
Peter Guy
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Liverpool is an ever-increasing joke. When it became European Capital Of Culture they got rid of the Quiggins complex and built a load of designer clothing stores instead. Apparently being cultured means being mainstream and chavvy.
Now theyre getting rid of one of the last independent, bohemian art spaces?? Maybe Liverpool CAN just rest endlessly on the success of the Beatles, but how about looking ahead and try to encourage new bands and new creativity?
The city is losing its character, and turning into a sanitized clone of just any other crappy place.
I'm totally behind the campaign to save MelloMello. There's simply no
justification to impose such crippling business rates which would in
effect force insolvency. And for what? Haven't we learned the lessons
of closing down Eric's in the 70's? More than that - Mello is a more
than a building or a business...it's more a state of mind where non-establishment
creatives carve out a space which celebrates originality and helps dreams to flourish. There's simply no other place like it in the city...worse still it's happening during the
Biennial. So, let's all get together to put some pressure where it matters to save Mello. If not now, then when...if not us, then who?
I am human Liverpool needs real places like Mello
MelloMello is a great little place, and I would be very sad to see it close.
However, if I were running one of the many nearby bars and restaurants, maybe struggling to survive in the current economic climate, I would be none too pleased to learn that it had been receiving an 80% discretionary discount on its Business Rates, and would no doubt be lobbying LCC to have that discount removed - or lobbying to have my own Business Rates reduced by 80% too.
Given that MelloMello's discount is inherently unfair to their local competitors, I suspect that LCC will not be persuaded to reverse their decision.
Mello Mello operates as a 'Community Interest Company'.
CICs are *NOT* charities. They were *NOT* brought into existence to be on the receiving end of philanthropy from the public purse either by direct funding or indirectly by huge discounts on their business rates.
CICs were created ..' for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not *purely* for private advantage. This is achieved by a "community interest test" and "asset lock", which ensure that the CIC is established for community purposes and the assets and profits are dedicated to these purposes.' (www.bis.gov.uk)
NOTE: *assets* and *profits*
So, CICs exist to *BE* philanthropic - *NOT* to be the recipients of philanthropy - using their *assets and profits* for community based activities, which their CIC status permits them to do in a 'light touch' legal framework - i.e. without most of the red tape associated with operating as a registered charity.
From what I have seen Mello Mello has all the makings of a successful business. If it requires a subsidy in the form of 80% off its business rates to survive then it suggests to me that there is something amiss with the way it is being run and how the income it receives is being disbursed.
If it has not already done so, LCC should ask the CIC Regulator to examine whether the ratio of 'private advantage' to 'community benefit' is such that Mello Mello merits CIC status at all.
It seems to me that this is yet another example of the 'creative types' running Mello Mello continuing a long tradition of assuming that they, and other 'creative types', should be subsidised by the rest of us. They shouldn't be, especially when local authorities are having to prune their budgets and cut services.
Who exactly does "legal eagle" represent? Could be Grosvenor prior to another land grab? Could it be a local Conservative who can't abide anything which doesn't fit a cherished free-market model? Could it be the legal section of the Council itself? If so, then thanks for posting since you've just given the Save Mello campaign some very valuable clues when they make a formal challenge. For information, any CIC can only receive approval after creating a Community Interest Statement which passes the test. Mello have done everything required by the Regulator and are completely above board - all the documents have been filed are in the public domain. The simple fact is that the Council have decided to treat Mello like any other business interest in the area. It plainly isn't. I suggest you go down there yourself and talk to them before making any more ludicrous statements about freeloading "creative types". Without them, you wouldn't have an independent sector or the alternative creative energies which Mello and many others help foster and celebrate.
"Legal Eagle" may feel that "creative types" are freeloaders, but I'm sure he still expects a share of the millions spent by visitors to the city for our cultural festivals and events.
Is 2008 so long ago that poor old Legal Eagle can't remember that argument being buried once and for all? What about the giants? Did Legal Eagle miss that, too? How about the Beatles museum? Trading on the back of the city's cultural life for years now.
Exactly how much revenue has "Legal Eagle" brought in to the city by comparison? Must be billions if he feels he has made a bigger contribution than the entire creative sector!
leave mello alone we need places like this to keep our creative youth flourishing .
Having spent 13 years in Liverpool and seeing the undercurrent of grassroots culture develop over this time I am so disappointed at this situation. Why destroy the chance to heighten the cultural economy of the city for no reason? The hardwork and dedication of the volunteers at MelloMello are enriching the city, not for immediate profit, but through vocational calling. The city should be encouraging this, it costs them nothing, but can gain them so so much.
Legal Eagle, how is MelloMello a succesful business when it relies on volunteers to function? A building that was on its way to dereliction has been built up into a melting pot of ideas and creative exploration that will help form new cultural wealth in the city. This short-termism risks sanitisation and mediocrity, something I never thought the great city would tolerate.
I currently live in Seoul, and even with the vibrant artistic community there is a lack of anything that brings that community together as MelloMello does. This lack of cohesion means that there is very little cross fertilisation of ideas, shared focus, creative confidence, and encouragement. This in turn leads to arts that need to be imported or x-factoresque imitations that do nothing to build a cultural heritage to be proud of. In short it leads to Gun's and Roses covers and Gangnam style.