New Arts Hub
-
Posts
-
You may as well just give Councillor Jones an open cheque book for the amount of money that is going to be required to keep this project going.
The maximum level of commitment to subsidise is not stated in the report- there is no break-even point as stated on previous comments.
Who in their right mind would push forward with something that will drain funding for ever at a time when they are closing residential homes, an appalling educational standard and social care needing massive investment.
The Leader of the Council should kill this one dead or he and others on the Executive can say goodbye to their positions in 2017 when there are bound to be people who will stand against them in the local elections.Further documentation has been released – unsure when https://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/business/vibrant_viable_places/project2.htm
The files down towards the bottom appear to contain more information than the purely plan based ones near the top.
Sure I will get shot down by most other posters on here, but here goes.
Firstly, I agree that the council have managed the entire process and project incredibly badly in regards to communication and consultation.
That said, I do think the arts centre concept for the peoples market is a good one. Firstly, arts is a critical and often ignored element of our education – not just for children but throughout our lives. It gives us different perspectives and outlook on the world and the people we share it with. Wrexham Council MUST provide an arts service, this was the Oriel at the library and this will almost always be a loss making service as it is in pretty much every art gallery in the UK.
Combining the provision of arts through a town centre location helps to bring it to a wider audience but also utilise such projects to regenerate some of our empty/dilapidated buildings. Whilst the Peoples market is not the prettiest building, for a project such as this it actually does not matter. Its internal brutal concrete construction will actually add to the experience. The mixture of market stalls and arts will allow the centre to become much more accessible in comparison to the more enclosed Oriel at the library. We know retail provision in the town centre needs to fall, this seems to be a balanced way of re-purposing an edge of town centre building, whilst still maintaining an element of retail.
Whilst the council’s approach to this project leaves much to be desired the project costs itself actually seems pretty reasonable for what it could bring to the town centre. I was very dissapointed years ago when Wrexham managed to scrap a perfectly good theatre project at the last moment, lets hope it does not happen again.
Ddraig – can agree with most of what you are saying BUT and it is a very big BUT at a time of so many other services being cut shouldn’t we the ratepayers of Wrexham get asked whether we want millions spending on the building and £100k a year there after spending on this project rather than schools and Social Services.
The more you look at this the more you realistic the figures don’t stack up- take all the emotion out of everyone’s rhetoric and look at the business case.
It can be built only if there is over £2million of Arts Council funding — it will then loose money £80k upwards even after doubling the visitor numbers to 100,000 and doubling the car park charges–
The issue for me is what is the maximum level of subsidy that ratepayers would allow to go into this venture- and make a business case to meet this figure.I understand your concerns, but the numbers we are talking are not that large in context.
How much does the existing Oriel lose per year? The figure quoted is not incremental. The turnover must be significantly lower at the moment due to the small size and exposure that the gallery receives.
With regards to ratepayer subsidy, its £1.5m capital from the council, for a >£4m regeneration project (surely good value for the Wrexham ratepayer, a worthwhile refurb of the market for retail purposes would surely cost more than £1.5m).
The on-going costs at 80k/year, i’m sorry don’t seem excessive. Its an arts centre, the opportunities for direct revenue are limited so actually that is a relatively low figure in the wider scheme of things. 80k in social or education would not stretch far at all, and to my previous point – this is education provision. Just because it is not text books and teachers doesn’t mean it does not have significant community benefit.
[quote quote=105837]I understand your concerns, but the numbers we are talking are not that large in context.
How much does the existing Oriel lose per year? The figure quoted is not incremental. The turnover must be significantly lower at the moment due to the small size and exposure that the gallery receives.
With regards to ratepayer subsidy, its £1.5m capital from the council, for a >£4m regeneration project (surely good value for the Wrexham ratepayer, a worthwhile refurb of the market for retail purposes would surely cost more than £1.5m).
The on-going costs at 80k/year, i’m sorry don’t seem excessive. Its an arts centre, the opportunities for direct revenue are limited so actually that is a relatively low figure in the wider scheme of things. 80k in social or education would not stretch far at all, and to my previous point – this is education provision. Just because it is not text books and teachers doesn’t mean it does not have significant community benefit.
[/quote]
Have a walk around town and ask say 200 people and ask them would they support this project, if you got more than a handful I would be very surprised, personally think it is the City Status brigade at work once again !
Mark Pritchard , Council Leader speaking at Executive Board, talking about “tough, difficult ” decisions regarding cuts of £50,000 to services for young people with learning difficulties . However I anticipate later in the meeting £1.5 million will be found to fund the Arts Hub !
[quote quote=105843]
Have a walk around town and ask say 200 people and ask them would they support this project, if you got more than a handful I would be very surprised, personally think it is the City Status brigade at work once again ![/quote]
How about the 95 people that replied to the online consultation?
“Nearly 60% of respondents (57.32%) agree with the proposal to have an arts and cultural
space at the People’s Market with comments such as “Any cultural improvement will lead to
a social improvement in the long term.” It was felt that it would enhance the visitor
experience in Wrexham; boost the local economy and jobs and give an identity to the town.
There were also those respondents that felt that there is no place for art in Wrexham and a
large proportion of those not in favour cited the loss of the market and market traders as
being detrimental to the town although the project will actually include market stalls and will
increase footfall to the area and attract new audiences to the market.”Reference:
http://moderngov.wrexham.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=4154ddraig. You quote 60% of respondents agree with the proposal to have an arts and cultural space at the People’s Market. When they were asked, were they told that it would cost 4.1/2 million pounds to bring to fruition? I guess not, as I believe on the same lines as MP1953,the 60% may have turned out to be 2%.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
