Issue - meetings

Mark Sheldon, Director of Corporate Projects and Councillor Flo Clucas, Cabinet Member Healthy Lifestyles

(Comment on the options as necessary, particularly option 3 which is being recommended by the project team)

The Director of Corporate Projects introduced the update, as circulated with the agenda and explained that the paper summarised a significant amount of work undertaken by the consultants and project team, to analyse options for the Town Hall.  The Town Hall faced a number of issues, amongst them, poor access, ageing technical equipment, lack of capacity (under 1000 which reduced the ability to attract quality performers), a redundant and broken organ which took up capacity, a single bar which resulted in overcrowding, and only 4% of current audiences were aged 18-25.

A number of concepts were tested through public consultation, of which the community arts centre was the most well received and which helped shape the 5 redevelopment options which ranged from £8.8m to £29m, with the potential to generate additional revenue of between circa £88k p.a. to circa £290k p.a.  Given the level of capital investment required and the level of funding gaps identified, none of the options were viable and as such a further phased option was considered, to move the redevelopment forward, at a reduced cost overall of £25m compared to the original 5 options.  Given the conclusions of the work to date, the options available to the council and TCT included:

1.    Do nothing

2.    Progress phased development of the Town hall

3.    Invest a sum of circa £1m to pump prime the commercial opportunities identified by TCT and request that the council set aside the balance of £0.5m towards funding capital investment in CBC cultural assets following the completion of the development of the Cultural Strategy

4.    Build a lightweight café / bar and new entrance structure on the back of the Town Hall

5.    (The CBC lead Cabinet Member requested that the following additional option be explored).  Set up a free school based on performing arts provision. 

The project team concluded that the remaining budget of £1.5m should be used to address some immediate practical barriers to programming and attracting performers.  The team were now working with TCT to understand short and medium term requirements, which would support the viability of all Trust buildings and it would be for Cabinet to decide how to use the budget. 

The Cabinet Member for Healthy lifestyles acknowledged that there were issues at the Town Hall, not least the fact that it was a listed building which, to an extent limited the options for refurbishment.  Also, the challenge of attracting performers that in turn attracted a certain audience (and capacity), and this would become increasingly challenging as time went on.  Another issue was that the bar could not operate properly and investment here would allow for significant increases in income and ultimately, without investment, TCT would not be able to increase revenue and would therefore be making annual requests to the council for ongoing support.  The Cabinet Member noted the toilets, but explained that the Chief Executive of TCT was confident that there were commercial temporary toilets available which would solve the issue without the need for major  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7