Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Sport and Culture

The Cabinet Member Sport and Culture introduced the report as circulated with the agenda.

The development of the Art Gallery and Museum (AG&M) had been a long standing issue for the Council since the initial outline proposals in 2005. 

There were no issues with the current scheme, however, recent changes with the Heritage Lottery had resulted in the need to ensure that that the fundraising campaign either secured or had underwritten £5,500,000.

The report sought approval by Council to underwrite any shortfall to the £5,500,000 funding required for the development scheme, up to a maximum of £922,000 and subject to a wholly successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid of £750,000.

The Cabinet Member Finance and Community Development confirmed that Cabinet fully supported the development scheme, which he felt was more practical than that proposed by the previous administration.  He did however reinforce the prudential borrowing risks detailed within the financial implications of the report.

Councillor Smith felt that the recommendations were sensible given that they underpinned the guarantees required by the HLF.

The following responses were given by the Cabinet Member Sport and Culture to questions from Members;

• He was not aware of specific details of meetings with individual groups, which had included disabled groups, but he could arrange for the minutes to be incorporated into the report and Members were assured that access and practical usage issues had been addressed.
• Risk 1.02 in Appendix 1 related the risk of the development scheme being aborted and was being managed through ongoing dialogue with the media and key stakeholders.  The Gloucestershire Echo had already written some very favourable articles. It was felt that the public and stakeholders may be sympathetic to the current economic climate and reduction in funds since the original development scheme was proposed. 

Upon a vote it was unanimously

RESOLVED that:

1.      Subject to a wholly successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid, underwriting of any shortfall to the £5,550,000 funding required for the Development Scheme up to a maximum of £922,000 be approved.

2.      The final project cost of £6.3m as outlined in the report be approved.

Report of the Cabinet Member Sport and Culture

RESOLVED THAT:

1. Option 2 be pursued as the best option
   
   
2. The Cabinet supports the underwriting of any shortfall to the £5,550,000 funding required for the Development Scheme up to a maximum of £922,000 and Cabinet recommend to Council that this is agreed as part of the budget process for 2011/12.

The Cabinet Member Sport and Culture introduced the report which had been circulated separately from the agenda. The report set out the current financial position of the Art Gallery and Museum Development Scheme. The Art Gallery & Museum fundraising campaign had achieved funding commitments of £4,527,800 towards the Development Scheme total of £6.3m - leaving an outstanding shortfall of £1,772,200.

The report explained that the Art Gallery & Museum was working on a second-round bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for £750k; and further funding applications / approaches for £475k through the Development Trust. The aim was to reach a total of £5,750,000, for construction to start from spring 2011.

The submission of the second-round stage HLF bid was due by the end of November 2010 – and a decision on the outcome will be announced during March 2011. Recent changes with the Heritage Lottery has resulted in the need to ensure the fundraising campaign either secures or underwrites £5,550,000 of which council underwrites £1,022m, – before the second-round application can be submitted.

It is unlikely that the funding level required by HLF will be secured by November. Therefore, Cabinet was being asked to determine which of the options identified within the report it wished to pursue; in light of the changed position of HLF.

The Leader welcomed the members of the public who had attended the meeting for this item. He invited Graham Lockwood as chairman and Margaret Austin as a member of the fundraising Development Trust for the AG&M, to address the meeting.

Mr Lockwood emphasised the importance of the development scheme to the town.   It would attract more visitors to the AG&M by providing improved facilities and would facilitate the development of that area of Cheltenham. The project had received support both locally and throughout the county. He explained that the role of the Development Trust was to access sources of funding which may not be accessible to the council. To date they had raised £2 million which was a major achievement.  However he emphasised that this amount was made up of time-limited commitments of funding rather than the money itself. It was important to secure these existing commitments and to be in the best possible position to secure the balance from the HLF and this was why the underwriting by the Council was so important. A public commitment of support by the Cabinet would also provide greater opportunities for the trust to seek additional funding support from other trusts and individuals.

Ms Austin was also keen to stress the importance of retaining the existing commitments which once lost may never be regained. These commitments had been secured on the basis of the current scheme and there was a risk of losing them if the scheme was changed at this point. She acknowledged that it is a difficult time for fundraising but advised that since the report had been written, the trust had secured another £100,000 of funding and raising additional funds would be easier  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9