Archived decisions

Contact: Nicola Horsey (01962) 845423 [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report presents the case for transferring the management of the Tower arts centre to Kings' School on 1 January 2008 and moving most of the Tower's activities to the Winchester Discovery Centre. It sets out the current situation, considers the other options and details Kings' School's proposal.

2. Recommendations

2.1 That the Executive Members for Recreation and Heritage, Children's Services and for Policy and Resources approve:

    i) the management of the Tower arts centre be transferred from the Recreation and Heritage department to Kings' School on 1 January 2008; and

    ii) the property be appropriated from Recreation and Heritage purposes to Children's Services purposes.

    iii) A further report is taken to the Recreation and Heritage Decision Day in September 2007 on the details of, and final agreement with, Kings' School.

3. Background to the Tower Arts Centre

3.1 The Tower arts centre was, originally, a water tower built in 1898 to provide water for Winchester which it continued to do for over 50 years. Hampshire County Council bought the Tower in 1955 and opened it as a drama centre in 1969, run by the then Education Department. It offered young people the opportunity to work with specialist drama teachers in a well resourced drama space at a time when Hampshire schools did not have specialist drama teachers.

3.2 As the drama centre became more established it ventured into other art forms and began to provide activities for adults, bringing in professional theatre companies and live music events.

3.3 In 1990 the Tower was transferred into what has since become the Recreation and Heritage Department, where it has been able to offer a broader range of programming and classes. In 1996 a visual arts studio and accessible toilet were completed and in 2004 further alterations were made to the Tower to make it fully accessible for disabled people.

3.4 The Tower arts centre is situated adjacent to Kings' School, one of Hampshire's best performing secondary schools. The Tower is bordered by playing fields on two sides, private housing to the south and by the school's swimming pool and sports hall to the west - see attached plan and aerial photographs.

3.5 Over the last five years the Tower has worked increasingly with Kings' School both as a way of involving young people in its activities and supporting its efforts to engage more with the community. Also, as part of the initial all- party Member Review in 2006 of the County Council's Arts Service and Arts Centres the specific avenue of exploring closer working relationships with Kings' School was a particular recommendation that was made. For some time the County Council has been having discussions with the school on closer joint working and partnerships to considering issues of shared facility management and the curriculum support the Tower can give to its students.

4. Current Activities at The Tower

4.1 Currently the Tower runs:

      · An average of 75 evening performances per year over three seasons with live music and theatre attracting the biggest audiences. In the main audiences come from Winchester, Eastleigh, Southampton and Romsey. The greatest proportion of Tower users falls between the ages of 35 and 64 with 37% in the 45-54 age group, this is twice the number of the catchment demographic for this group. 6% of users are aged under 35 not including under 16s. 30% of bookers come from the MOSAIC group high income families and about 15% from the MOSAIC group town houses and flats.

      · Classes run for three 10 week term courses per year, for eight out of ten weekday slots and two out of the five weekday evening slots. The classes are all held in the visual arts studios. Over 70% of participants are retired residents from Winchester and the surrounding rural areas.

      · Workshops for children at half term and a term time Youth Theatre Group.

      · The Children's Festival, which is held during February half term week and various youth music initiatives including the popular Battle of the Bands.

      · 1-2 school bookings for theatre performances every term.

      · Home to Blue Apple Theatre Group, a group for disabled people which has become so popular that it has a waiting list, it uses the Tower on two evenings a week.

      · The Tower's foyer and bar area is used as a picture gallery to show work from a range of artists.

5 Arts Provision in Winchester

5.1 Winchester has a wide range of venues providing cultural opportunities in many different guises. Winchester City Council's Arts Strategy 2006-2009 states that:

    `The last few years in Winchester have seen a steady and strong growth of

    artistic activity.'

5.2 This has been due to a combination of factors including:

      · The re-opening of the Theatre Royal Winchester in October 2001, offering a varied programme of cultural activities.

      · Many more musical events in Winchester Cathedral and other venues.

      · The provision of new performance halls at Peter Symond's College and St Swithun's school which are increasingly used for public events.

      · An active programme at The Chesil Theatre.

      · The Railway Inn and other venues providing the opportunity to hear live music from local bands.

    This is in addition to the increase of activities at the Tower.

5.3 Looking ahead-

      · In November 2007 the Winchester Discovery Centre will open in what the City Council Arts Strategy calls `the heart of Winchester's cultural quarter' with a combined reference and lending library, a Grade 1 art gallery, performance hall, class rooms and Winchester City exhibition space amongst other facilities.

      · The University of Winchester are developing a new space for live music, large enough to accommodate up to 1,200 people as part of the new University Centre and student union. This is due to open in autumn 2007.

5.4 However, as the City Council Arts Strategy points out;

      `...the next four years will almost inevitably see change to the cultural landscape. Traditional venues may close as budgetary pressures for the two local authorities (the City and the County Council) increases.'

6 Kings' School's Proposal

6.1 Kings' School has recently been designated as a "High Performing Specialist School" by the DfES in relation to its Business and Enterprise specialism. The school manages the Enterprise Hub for this region which includes approximately eighty partner schools. Kings' received a national award from the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust in September 2006 for its community based projects.

6.2 Kings' has an established and embedded culture of enterprise alongside a strong tradition of collaboration and co-operation with community partners. The school also has an impressive record of high quality delivery across all the performing arts but has always lacked an appropriate performance space.

6.3 The Kings' School proposal is centred around these three elements. They envisage the Tower being run as part of the school's sport and community business provision. The Tower would work closely with the local community, Hub partner schools and Primary partner schools in order to develop a needs driven enterprise based sustainable programme which would also service the extended schools agenda.

6.4 Specifically Kings' School is proposing to:

    · Enhance and develop the range of activities offered to young people through

      o Annual Children's Festival - continuation of this regular feature of the Tower's programme.

      o Continuing Partnership with Blue Apple Theatre Company - a project integrating the able and learning disabled in creative performance.

      o Continuing the daytime programme of activities offered to community users in the range of classes and activities.

      o Continuing and building on outreach activities in the community including work with partner and feeder schools.

      o Continuing participation in the Battle of the Bands project.

      o Gallery programme including work by locally based artists and work produced by young people.

      Plus

      o Dance Academy - aimed at school children in the `twilight hours' after school and weekends. Open to young people from the school and the primary and secondary partners in Winchester.

      o Music and Arts Academy - for programmed concerts and school productions. Music master classes would be integrated into the facility to enable both children and adults to learn, develop and hone their skills in music making.

      o Use Tower spaces as appropriate during the school day to enhance the delivery of its curriculum alongside community use.

      o To work with Winchester City Council with the ambition to deliver an enhanced service plan for a community arts based programme.

      o To ensure that we work closely with local groups with the intention of maintaining the existing pattern of classes and lettings.

      The ambition is to increase activity in daytime, extended hours, evening and weekend use. In addition the school will use its expertise, demonstrated by its 2006 National Award for work in the community relating to business and enterprise, to involve a range of young people in the business development of the centre building an entrepreneurial culture.

    · "As a designated Physically Disabled school, the disabled pupils are fully integrated into life at Kings'". In September the school will be opening its new health suite for community use. It will be the only fully Inclusive Fitness Initiative approved Health Suite in the region which is fully accessible (to industry standard) to the disabled. The disabled provision within the Tower would strongly complement those which already exist within the school and enhance the opportunities for disabled youngsters and those within the local community.

6.5 With the Discovery Centre opening at the end of the year and the wish of the Head of Kings' School to build on the work of the Tower Arts Centre we have a real opportunity to improve cultural provision for both existing audiences and widen access. The Discovery Centre will build on the performance experience of the Tower, working with the Theatre Royal and other performance venues in the city to ensure that this seven day a week venue appeals to as broad an audience as possible. When linked to the clear commitment of Kings' School to preserve and expand the community based activity at the Tower the overall effect will be to improve the range and diversity of cultural provision in Winchester, with the real potential of widening participation by being in the centre of the "cultural quarter" of the city.

6.6 A further report will be taken to the Recreation and Heritage Decision Day in September 2007 on any final agreement between the County Council and Kings' School.

7. Other Options

7.1 Other options considered for the Tower arts centre have been:-

7.2 i) Maintain the status quo

    All the County Council's Art Centres are being scrutinized as part of a re-modelling of the Arts Service and, as already mentioned, the opening of the Discovery Centre in November 2007 and the increased programme of community involvement at the Kings' School presents an appropriate operational opportunity to make the transfer of activities to the Discovery Centre as soon as it opens as well as coinciding with the beginning of the new school term at Kings' School. This will bring its much valued activities to the centre of Winchester and provide the Kings' School with extra capacity for developing its community links and offer.

7.3 ii) Close the Tower and sell the site

    This option has been investigated by the Director of Property Business and Regulatory Services, and as a brownfield site it could have potential for residential development. However, there are likely to be issues about the loss of this community facility (these would be reinforced by the school's request to manage the building), and there are also concerns about additional traffic that could be generated by any new housing. Achieving planning consent is therefore likely to be problematic.

7.4 The preferred and recommended option is to move as many of the Tower's activities as possible to the Discovery Centre and to transfer the management of the Tower to Kings' School to start on 1 January 2008. To achieve this, the property would need to be appropriated from Recreation and Heritage purposes to Children's Services purposes.

8. Staffing Implications

8.1 There are seven staff at the Tower, 3 full time and 4 part time at 0.5 of a job or less. Whilst there will be opportunities for at least some of the staff to slot into similar roles at the Discovery Centre, it is too early to be specific on this. It is not yet known whether Kings' School would be offering any suitable opportunities. Clearly the County Council will do everything possible to ensure that staff are given every support through this period of change.

9. Financial Implications

9.1 The proposal is to transfer the management of the Tower from the Recreation and Heritage department to Kings' School on 1 January 2008. Maintenance of the building would come under the usual school arrangements with Property, Business and Regulatory Services.

9.2 The net base budget for Tower Arts is £99,700 and this forms part of the Arts budget within the Recreation and Heritage cash limit. In addition, the Tower receives an annual grant of £21,000 from Winchester City Council. The transfer will enable some base budget to be used to support the development of the Winchester Discovery Centre for live performance and to support any transition costs to Kings' School. This discussion is still continuing and a more detailed analysis of the budget position will be reported to the Executive Member in September. Meanwhile discussions are continuing with Winchester City Council about the future of the annual £21,000 grant.

9.3 The proposed transfer of the Tower to the school is part of a re-modelling of the whole Arts Service to take into account the 4.2% budget reduction for 2007/08 and possible pressures in future years.

9.4 Discussions are being held with the Kings' School, the Director of the Tower, Director designate of the Winchester Discovery Centre and Winchester City Council to decide which activities at the Tower should transfer to the Discovery Centre and which should stay at the Tower. Depending on the outcome of these discussions, Recreation and Heritage may subsidise the costs for the transition period, but this will be supported from existing budgets.

9.5 The premises will form part of the school and thus come under the Children's Services funding of schools. Accordingly from 2008/09 onwards the school would receive the usual per square metre and rates funding (£14,800) as part of the main budget share. In 2007/08 a quarter of a year's funding for premises costs, amounting to £3,700 would have to come from the Local Management of Schools contingency.

10. Consultation with local member

10.1 Councillor Phrynette Dickens has been contacted about the proposal but has not yet responded.

11. Legal Implications

11.1 The County Council is able to utilise broad powers under the Local Government Act 1972 to provide financial support for the arts. In particular, Section 145 if the act enables the Council to contribute towards expenses of doing anything necessary or expedient for any of a number of purposes, including the provision of entertainment of any nature, or provision of a theatre, concert hall, dance hall or other premises suitable for entertainment. The powers include the ability to contribute towards the development and improvement of the knowledge, understanding and practice of the arts.

12. Impact Assessment

12.1 No group or organisations should be excluded from any benefit arising from this recommendation.

Section 100 D-Local Government Act 1972-background documents.

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes.

    1. Published works

    2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

Title

Tower Arts File Arts Service, Mottisfont Court.