Sedgemoor District Council (SDC) has proposed
to the Bridgwater Arts Centre (BAC) that it move its theatre
to the Princess Hall in Burnham. They wish to sell it by June
next year.
The SDC's justification for this move
is based upon new legislation: The Disability Discrimination
Act 1995 (DDA). SDC say that the building the BAC currently occupies
in Castle Street (which it owns) is not DDA compliant and it
would cost it too much to make it so. This is of course a red
herring.
The SDC then propose to move the Arts
Centre back into a purpose built cultural Island in the Town
Hall, along with the Blake Museum. The cost of this new building
will, according to SDC's consultants, Donaldson, be in
excess of £3,000,000. There are real questions over where
the SDC would get this kind of money. And not only that, in the
meantime there would be no Arts Centre in Bridgwater and a very
suspect chance of it ever returning. It would definitely not
return for a number of years. Donaldsons itself reccomends that
the Arts Centre be maintained until a viable Bridgwater Alternative
is found.
Next year the SDC will carry out feasibility
study which would more accurately cost the reccomendations of
the Donaldson Report and other possible options open to the council,
(such as renovating the buildings separately, which would likely
be much less than 3 million), but by the time it reports back
they will have sold the Arts Centre.
Bridgwater people deserve an arts centre,
many much smaller towns across the country have one. SDC should
take seriously its commitment towards the arts in its district
town, and it should be taking seriously its commitment to the
able and the disabled of the region by assisting the provision
of an accessible arts centre.
In the last three years the annual footfall
of the BAC has risen dramatically from 7000 to 31000, there is
a true renaissance of arts based activity. Bridgwater has a population
of some 35000 and it's growing e.g. the building of some 900
houses around the Northern Distributor Road (NDR). A move from
Bridgwater to Burnham would erode all this work, most of the
volunteers would leave, the membership would clearly fall sharply
and Bridgwater people would not come because of obvious geography.
Essentially this would mean it would become Burnham Arts Centre
which is not the same thing at all.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995
comes into full affect in October 2004. The legislation was designed
to provide disabled people with fair access to employment and
services. The estimate here is some 12.6 million people. It is
not about shutting down organisations or buildings, rather it
is about opening them up to more people. A lot of extra people.
SDC should be rising to this challenge by bringing its buildings
into line and BAC should be lobbying SDC to get the work done
there. At the end of the day it's common sense stuff like ramps,
disabled toilets, hearing loops, lifts. the DDA doesn't apply
from the point of view of employees since there is less than
15 of them.
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It is not clear how much money would be
required to bring the building up to DDA scratch, it is however
clear that it would be small compared to many other SDC projects,
particularly so in the light of the amount of money the SDC has
received in recent land sales. (Asda; 1.7M, NDR; some M's etc.,).
Figures from an SDC internal DDA audit put improvements to the
ground floor of the arts centre at a cost of about £50,000
and for the whole building about £139,000. there may be
other structural work that would need doing which might add to
this cost.
By contrast, ten years ago, SDC spent
£750,000 on the Princess Hall. Attendance figures at the
Princess Hall are apparently low which is presumably, at least
in some part, because less people live near it. And, in due course,
they're gonna sell that one too...
SDC make the vague proposal that the Arts
Centre will, in time, be able to move back into purpose built
accommodation in the Town Hall. However, this is, of course,
uncertain and they have not yet carried out the feasibility study
that they themselves have commissioned for this purpose. Certainly
BAC should not agree to any such move until after the feasibility
study has taken place. Indeed it may be that the cost of alterations
to the Town Hall would be much greater than making the required
changes to the Arts Centre itself and the other buildings concerned.
Recently the SDC got a firm called Donaldson
to cost renovation and improvement of the Town Hall to include
the Arts Centre, the Blake Museum and several other amenities,
the figure they arrived at was in excess of £3,000,000.
Over the years many suggestions have been
put forward about the future direction of the BAC. These have
ranged from purpose built out of town new buildings, to renovation,
to new buildings associated with new school builds etc. This
is not about the medium to long term future of the BAC; it is
about keeping a viable arts centre in Bridgwater until the way
forward is decided upon. There should be no break in continuity;
in other words the BAC should stay in Castle Street at least
until there is a tangible alternative. At the same time in order
to remain within the DDA money should be spent to achieve this.
The BAC is in a strong bargaining position.
This relates to The Business Tenancy Act 1954. The BAC is currently
-Holding Over- on its lease which expired several years ago.
It has the right to request a new lease and SDC only have the
right to refuse on two grounds, a. That they want it for there
own use and b. they want it for redevelopment. Since neither
of these two conditions apply the BAC has the upper hand. Also
the lessee has -the right of quiet enjoyment- i.e. the lessor
can't hassle them to leave. Of course the SDC is the core funder
of the BAC and they could remove their funding, however they
would not do this for political expediency. It would seem too
vindictive.
The final point is one of architecture,
The Arts centre is in Grade 1 listed. In whatever form, and for
whatever use, shouldn't the council be keeping such assets in
its portfolio of buildings?
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