Agenda item

(To receive a report from Nicole Hilton, Assistant Director – Communities on the Future of the Heritage Service, which will be presented to the Executive on the 03 September 2019. The views of the Committee will be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item)

Prior to the report being presented, Councillor K Clarke proposed that items 5 and 6 were deferred and considered at a future meeting of the committee, on the grounds that the report on the Future of the Heritage Service was published three days after the publication of the agenda, and therefore councillors had not had sufficient time to give the report full consideration.

The Chairman advised that the late publication of the report had not breached regulation and therefore there was no legal obligation to defer the consideration of items 5 and 6 of the agenda.

The proposal was not seconded and therefore the proposal fell.

The Chairman welcomed members of the public and thanked those that had responded to the formal consultation on the Future of the Heritage Service.

Members were reminded that the report included a detailed outcome of the consultation, which the public and stakeholders had been invited to respond to between the 13 February and 24 April 2019.

The Chairman allowed two statements from members of the public, a summary of both are detailed below:

Statement from Catherine Wilson OBE

Catherine introduced herself as a career museum professional with many years' experience at heritage sites across Lincolnshire. Catherine had been awarded an OBE for her service to museums and galleries and had voluntarily assisted in offering support to Heritage Services around Lincolnshire.

Catherine acknowledged the current financial restraints on the council, and the possible need for a more commercial approach to heritage services across Lincolnshire. However, it was felt that the council's approach should be driven by ambition, enthusiasm and expertise in order to maximise the benefits to the county's heritage service, and that further discussions needed to be held to agree the best solution for the future of the council's heritage service, in particular the Usher Gallery and The Collection Museum.

On behalf of the Save Lincolnshire Usher Gallery campaign group, Catherine raised a number of concerns about the proposed Future of the Heritage Service decision, which included the following:

·         There were concerns that the consultation process had been lengthy and complicated. 

·         Campaigners were of the view that the responses of the consultation results had not been reflected in the recommendations.

·         It was emphasised that the collections in the Usher Gallery had been donated to Lincoln City Council by James Usher on the understanding that the council would care for the material on behalf of the citizens of Lincolnshire. Catherine echoed the concerns held by the Save Lincolnshire Usher Gallery group that the County Council could possibly serve notice to terminate the collections management agreement and return of the collections owned by the City of Lincoln Council to the City of Lincoln Council. Members were urged to consider the future of these collections and their importance to the people of Lincolnshire and its heritage.

·         It was felt that recommendation 10 required further consideration, and that in order to for a third party to successfully take ownership of some of the council's windmills, they needed to have an appropriate level of background knowledge and funding.

·         It was felt that the Museum for Lincolnshire Life was unheralded and unacknowledged in its representation of the domestic and working lives of Lincolnshire people and the industrial heritage of the county.

·         Catherine advised Members to carefully question recommendations 2, 3, 5 and 10 and urged members to reject recommendation 11 to allow Members an opportunity to consider the matter when further information was available.

Statement from Richard Harrison Wood – Chairman of the Usher Gallery Trust

Richard introduced himself as the Chairman of the Usher Gallery Trust, explaining that his statement would focus in particular of the future of the Usher Gallery.

It was noted that the Usher Gallery Trust had a particular interest in the council's exploration of running the Usher Gallery in conjunction with a third party.

Richard advised Members that the Usher Gallery Trust believed that it was the right time to move the future of the Usher Gallery forward with new ideas, and felt that through partnership working and sufficient timescales, a successful supersite model for the Usher Gallery could be developed.

Furthermore, Richard expressed the views of the Trust that the timescales detailed within the report for a third party to develop a business plan did not provide sufficient time to develop an appropriate model to allow a successful move forward with the Usher Gallery. 

Members were urged to reconsider the timescale for putting together an alternative method for running the Usher Gallery.

------------------------------------------End-of-statements---------------------------------------------

Consideration was then given to a report by the Head of Culture, which invited the committee to consider a report regarding the future of the Heritage Service, which was due to be considered by the Executive on the 3 September 2019.

The Head of Culture set out the 11 recommendations included in the Executive report and advised members of the context of each proposal.

Members were invited to ask questions, in which the following points were noted:

·         It was confirmed that the City of Lincoln Council had been involved in the ongoing discussions about the future of the heritage service for the last two years and that the County Council had kept them informed about the properties and collections that were held under the responsibility of both councils.

·         The Head of Culture explained that the council would look for a sustainable business case from a third party to run the usher gallery by no later than 31 October 2019. It was confirmed that a scoping document had already been shared which showed a broad vision about how a third party would operate in terms of finance, governance and operation models.

·         The Executive Councillor for Culture and Emergency services explained that the council were seeking a first stage business case by the 31 October 2019 and felt it was unreasonable to expect a full detailed business case to be submitted within this timeframe.

·         It was anticipated that the visitor numbers for the Collection Museum would increase for 2019 compared with 2018, which was partly due to the success of a number of popular exhibitions.

·         Members were advised that in recent years the Usher Gallery had received around 20,000 visits a year, in comparison with the museum of the moon exhibition held at The Collection Museum which had attracted over 40,000 visitors alone in the two months that it was on display.

·         It was explained that without significant financial investment, the council were limited to the types of exhibitions that could take place within the Usher Gallery, due to a number of environmental factors.

·         The Head of Culture acknowledged that there was a strong passion for the Usher Gallery to remain open as an art gallery. However, it was noted that under the current financial restraints, operating The Collection as the main art gallery would offer more people within the County the opportunity to engage with art. 

·         Officers had concluded that the proposals within the report offered an opportunity to optimise the number of people visiting Lincoln to learn about the county's heritage. It had been acknowledged that there was further potential to attract more visitors to the county through the council's heritage offer.  The council were working with closely Visit Lincoln and other partner organisations to maximise the county's visitor potential through the heritage offer through the resources available. 

·         Members were advised that although it was not a formal consultation response, the Change.org petition regarding the closure of the Usher Gallery had been considered by officers when formulating the consultation responses. It was highlighted that there the petition had not raised any concerns that had not already been captured within the formal consultation responses.  

·         Officers emphasised that the public consultation responses had been carefully considered by the council. The feedback received as part of the consultation process had led to the creation of recommendation 4 of the report – that the council explores the potential for third party operation of the Usher Gallery in whole or in part as an art gallery.

·         The Head of Culture emphasised the council's willingness to work with a Third Party organisation in consultation with the Usher Gallery Trust to allow future operation of the Usher Gallery.

·         Officers advised that they would work closely with partner organisations to ensure that the County Council were looking at things in a strategic way.

The Assistant Director – Communities referred the committee to a letter that had been circulated from the City of Lincoln Council, which provided formal response to the consultation on the Future of the Heritage Service.

The letter welcomed the opportunity to meet with the relevant LCC officers to discuss the further impact on the City Council with regards to the proposals that had been made within the report. The letter also requested that a further meeting of the committee be scheduled prior to consideration of the report by the Executive, to allow the proposal to be properly scrutinised.

The Chief Legal Officer clarified that there was no legal requirement to schedule a further meeting of the committee to discuss the Future of the Heritage Service.

Councillor K Clarke proposed that another meeting of the committee be scheduled to reconsider the item.

The proposal was not seconded and therefore the proposal fell.

The Board supported the recommendations, as set out in the Executive report, with 7 votes for and 1 vote against.

Councillor K Clarke wished that it be noted that he voted against the proposal to support the recommendations. 

RESOLVED:

1.    That the recommendations, as set out in the Executive report, be supported;

2.    That a summary of the comments made above be passed on to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item.