Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report :

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1) Summary of Decision Area:

1.1. Approval is sought to transfer management of Havant Museum to Havant Art Centre (HAC) and establish and a partnership agreement between Hampshire County Council and HAC.

1.2. Approval is sought to redevelop the "museum" element of Havant Museum and remove the Vokes firearm collection to Chilcomb, in conjunction with Havant Borough Council & HAC.

1.3. Approval to establish a Partnership Board to create a South East Hampshire Cultural Centre.

2) Issues Covered in Report:

2.1. Governance and staffing of the museum.

2.2. Development and funding of Havant Museum.

2.3. A South East Cultural Centre in Havant.

3) Recommendations:

3.1 It is recommended that HCC transfer the management of Havant Museum to HAC from the 1^st April 2009.

3.2 It is recommended that HCC redevelops the "museum" element of the site.

3.3 It is recommended that HCC supports and participate in the creation of the South East Hampshire Cultural Centre Project Board.

MAIN REPORT

1) Purpose of the Report:

1.1. This paper outlines the recommended option for the future management and development of Havant Museum in conjunction with Havant Borough Council and Havant Art Centre following the initial approval by the Joint Management Committee for Havant Museum on the 14^th July.

2) Contextual Information:

2.1. Havant Museum is situated on East Street and tells the story of the Borough from ancient times to the present day. Displays include local history collections and specialist artifacts including the Vokes Sporting Firearms collections. A varied programme of exhibitions and activities ensures that there is a lively community museum. There are free family-friendly drop-in activities and trails during the school holidays. The museum is physically attached to Havant Art Centre. Both sites enjoy a level of collaboration. The Art Centre is managed by an independent trust, although the County Art Service grants £106,000 per annum to the Trust.

2.2. Currently the museum service and staff are provided by Hampshire County Council through locally based staff and personnel operating from Museum HQ at Chilcomb. The museum is governed by a Joint Management Committee equally funded by Hampshire County Council and Havant Borough Council. In 2006 Havant Borough Council gave notice that they would terminate the agreement and funding as of 31^st Match 2009 (current annual HBC gross contribution £90,050). HCC annual estimated costs towards the museum site and local provision were £81,650.

3) Key Issues:

3.1. Establish a Service Level Agreement between HCC museums and HAC.

3.2. Terminate the JMC and negotiate the modification of current HAC Trust to reflect the new museum services provided by HAC .

3.3. Redeploy or make redundant the current Havant Museum front of house staff.

3.4. Prepare a plan to redisplay the museum elements of the HAC. Apply for external capital funding to complete the redevelopment of the museum, approximate cost around £100,000.

3.5. Manage expectations relating to the development of South East Cultural Centre in Havant.

4) Partnership agreement and management of Havant Museum :

4.1. A new partnership is forged with the Havant Arts Centre with equal funding support from HBC and HCC. The museum would form part of a new Arts & Heritage Centre managed by the Havant Arts Centre Trust. All staff and operational matters would be defer to the Arts Centre manager. A service level agreement would be established to ensure the new centre provides an agreed museum service. This would entail a new local history gallery, a local resource room and space for learning activities. Museum centrally based services would support the museum function of the Arts & Heritage Centre. Currently Hampshire Museums provides a regular exhibition service, family and schools activities and workshops, museum marketing, curatorial and conservation support services.

4.2. Both authorities would provide a grant of £13,900 each per annum to support the museum element of the Arts & Heritage Centre. HBC would continue to cover their existing buildings liabilities for the Borough owned buildings (amounting to £13,300) and the County would continue to provide central museum services to the Centre, (currently costed at £20,500).

4.3. The Havant curator would be redeployed to Chilcomb, Museum HQ. Current front of house museum staff would be redeployed or made redundant, the potential financial exposure for redundancy costs would be £43,000. The current funding package could create a museum orientated front of house post managed by HAC.

5) Capital redevelopment of the museum:

5.1. The Vokes gun and clock collections will be returned to central collections access facility prior to being made accessible online and in future displays. This will allow the upper floor areas of the museum will be made available as office and workshop space for arts organisations which are to be relocated from Bedhampton Arts Centre and Havant Borough Council's civic offices. HCC intends to make a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to improve the local history displays and refurbish the gallery spaces. Havant is one of only four priority areas in the South East for HLF funds over the next five years.

5.2.

Removal of current displays and collections from Havant Museum	£2000
Research and text and image writing for new gallery	£4000
Design costs for gallery	£3000
New lighting for gallery	£10,000
Gallery Cases	£15,000
New display systems (wall, plinths etc...)	£10,000
Graphic board construction	£10,000
Interactive displays	£5000
Installation costs of new gallery	£3000
Project management and preparation costs	£3000
Travel and subsistence costs	£1000
Renovate local history resources room	£10,000
Make good the property and contingency costs	£15,000
Sub Total	£100,000

5.3. This work will require funding from external sources including Heritage Lottery Fund: Your Heritage (maximum £50,000) and Hub funding Funds are available (£40,000) from and for the Friends of the museum which could be concentrated on developing a local history resource room, which would cost around £10,000, funding from Awards for All (£10,000) and Friends funds. It is expected that it will take around 2 months of staff time to prepare a brief and bid.

6) Cultural Centre Partnership Board:

6.1. In the medium term, both authorities are investigating the potential for developing a new more extensive Arts and Heritage/Cultural centre offering arts, heritage and other services; working with private, public and voluntary sector partners to develop viable proposals. This could possibly form part of the Market Parade redevelopment in Havant town centre or there may be room for improvement on the existing East Street site. The aim is to increase capacity and improve facilities to offer a high quality performance and exhibition programme and to encourage greater participation by the community and by young people in particular. The new facilities could be completed by 2012 resource permitting.

6.2. The project could easily encompass the modernisation of service delivery across a range of County and Borough functions through a one stop facility linked to appropriate back office functions. This would provide innovative and accessible service delivery solutions and be consistent with the aspirations of both authorities to secure continuous improvement in service delivery whilst securing efficiency in asset management.

6.3. The Project Board would be established to progress the creation of this centre. It would include the following: Leader of HBC, Portfolio holder HCC for Recreation, Heritage & Communities, Portfolio holder HBC for Health & Wellbeing, Director of Recreation & Heritage HCC, Head of Regeneration HBC, Head of Museums HCC. A Project team of officers and appropriate third parties would report to the Board.

7) Option Analysis / Comparison:

7.1. Milestones.

5th September	Meet with HBC and HAC to agreed project team for redevelopment, SLA and governance structure
October	HAC, HBC & HCC agree new arrangement and funding
November	HLF Your Heritage Bid submitted
January	Awards for ALL Friends bid submitted
February	Preparation of 1st floor collections and displays for removal and safe storage
April	Staff redeployed or redundancy completed, HAC assumes management of museum. HLF approve application
May	Museum service dismantles displays (closure or partial closure)
Summer	Construction and installation of new gallery and local history resource space, other works related to the site are undertaken
November	Launch of new Art & Heritage Centre
5th September	Meet with HBC and HAC to agreed project team for redevelopment, SLA and governance structure

7.2. Risks:

HBC pulls out of agreement	Renegotiate settlement and take under consideration the termination of museum provision in the borough and reconsider partnership with HBC over Cultural Centre
HAC pull out of agreement	Renegotiate settlement, exert pressure from HCC Arts grant to HAC
HLF bid is unsuccessful	Consider more cost effective option and recourse to R&H capital fund
Redundancy costs	Seek redeployment of staff
Unable to find suitable secure store for firearms collections	Prepare and pack firearms at Havant Museum in one room and renegotiate short term arrangement to keep part of the 1st floor as a store
Public backlash against perceived reduction of services	Communication strategy at corporate and R&H required to manage media, public and stakeholder expectations

8) Summary Recommendations:

8.1. It is recommended that HCC agrees to transfer the management of Havant Museum to HAC and negotiate a SLA with HAC.

8.2. It is recommended that HCC prepares and submit an external funding bid to develop the museum in HAC.

8.3. It is recommended that HCC explore future long term options with HBC through a Project Board.

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION:

COMPREHENSIVE RISK & IMPACT ASSESSMENT:

Race and Equality Impact assessment

Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

Crime prevention issues

The County Council has a legal obligation under Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to consider the impact of all the decisions it makes on the prevention of crime. The proposals in this report have no impact on the prevention of crime.