Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Littleboy, Christine Cox, Val Allen, Ron Bye and Stuart Lister.

The Chair welcomed new members to the meeting and introductions were made.

The Chair read out the contents of a letter received from David Gayton, Network of Library User Groups.

David, who was a longstanding member of this Committee, had reluctantly decided to resign due to increased work commitments.

The meeting expressed regret and was hopeful that David would consider coming back if future commitments allowed.

EsmeTemple asked whether Noreen Brown, Secretary of Rawmarsh Library Group and member of the Library Network, could take David’s place on this Committee.

Agreed:-  (1)  That, on behalf of the Committee, the Democratic Services Officer write to David Gayton thanking him for his valuable work over the past years in the work of Rotherham Cultural Consortium.

(2)  That Noreen Brown be accepted as a member of this Committee and invited to attend the next meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as a correct record.

(a)        The Motte, Kimberworth

The meeting was informed that enquiries are ongoing with English Heritage regarding ownership of this land.  It appears that English Heritage and RMBC do not own the land.  Officers within Education, Culture and Leisure Services and Economic and Development Services are working together on this matter.

A report would be given at a future meeting regarding ownership, or work that is required.

(b)                KivetonPark Colliery Regeneration Project

One member raised concern regarding the way his comments had been reported in the previous minutes.  He had not wished to cause offence to residents of KivetonPark and was keen to point out that Harthill was well endowed with five village halls, as is Todwick, and that Thorpe Salvin seemed well suited.

People in Harthill did not feel they could support a massive project at KivetonPark – i.e. the development of the Pit Head Baths.  There is a strong feeling that a lot of the equipment in the baths should be removed to the nearby Mining Museum and that the development should be low key.

The Chair explained the purpose and role of the Consortium which had no powers to endorse the Colliery Regeneration Project.  The only agreement reached at the previous meeting had been to thank the presenter.  Members of this Committee played a vital part in any consultation process regarding work of this nature.

Councillor Russell, in his capacity as Chairman of the Regeneration Scrutiny Panel, reported that the future of the project would be considered together with a list of other Objective 1 projects and that no decision had yet been made.

The meeting was further informed that the project was very much led from the community group in KivetonPark and that Officers of RMBC were only involved in an advisory capacity upon request.  There had been no commitment of RMBC’s resources to this project.

(c)                Kimberworth Manor House

The Chair reported that Kimberworth Manor house had been sold at auction, along with portfolios of three or four other buildings.  It is now no longer in the ownership of RMBC. 

In terms of assurances from RMBC regarding restoration work to the property, in keeping with the listed building status, the meeting was informed that any work of this nature must go through the planning process and that he property would remain of great interest to the Local Authority as a listed building.

(d)                Firbeck Hall

The meeting asked whether progress had been made with a previous suggestion of a Conservation Officer attending this meeting.

Agreed:-  That this be pursued for the next meeting in December and information be sought from the present owner of Firbeck Hall.

Tony Preston gave a verbal report on the success of the 3^rd Rotherham Cultural Conference which had taken place in May, 2005.

Fifty-six people had attended the Conference which had taken place at the recently refurbished Clifton ParkMuseum.  A number of speakers had attended which included representatives of English Heritage, Rotherham Tourism/Countryside Initiative and Green Spaces Officers of RIMBC.  In addition, information on the Lottery Funding had been available.

Thanks were extended to officers within Economic and Development Services for leading and facilitating some of the workshops.

A great deal of useful feedback had been received from delegates at the Conference, both positive and negative. 

A small number of delegates had complimented officers of RMBC on the way the day had been organised and on accessibility, and how it was good to see the Local Authority talking and listening to representatives of voluntary groups.

The meeting discussed the theme for next year’s Conference and a need for better co-ordination to suit everyone’s diary commitments, in particular those of Elected Members.

Phil Rogers reported a great deal of activity in Culture and Leisure Services over the past nine months.

Clifton ParkMuseum - The reopening of CliftonPark Museum had taken place on 29^th January, 2005 – 80,000 visitors had been recorded since then.  This compared to approximately 35,000 in previous years.  Comments entered in the Visitors’ Book would suggest that the majority of people seemed excited and enthusiastic about the facility, the signs being good for a successful future.

One criticism was that the Museum closed on a Friday.  This will be reviewed next year.

Culture and Leisure Service Plan and Tourism Plan-  This had now been completed and both had been aligned with the completion and publication of the Community Strategy.  Cultural services strongly aligned with the Rotherham Alive theme in both documents.

New Sports Facilities – Submissions from two bidders were due before Christmas in competing to design, construct and manage the new sports facilities.  An assessment process will then take place and a decision taken regarding the successful bidder.

Herringthorpe Stadium – The refurbished athletics track is now complete and in operation.  Work to the value of £80,000 has been carried out and will continue to develop work, funding being mainly from Sport England.

New synthetic sports pitch – DinningtonComprehensive School – This is now complete.  The pitch is fully-floodlit and the changing facilities are near completion.  It is anticipated that the facility will be very well used and the school is very excited about this facility.  The school has made great use of the facility all Summer and is available for community users out of school hours.

New Sports Hall – PopePius High School, Wath – Build of a new sports hall had commenced which would enable the school to teach physical education indoors.  This would be available for community use out of school hours.

Clifton Park and Boston Park – Work on the development and conservation and management plans for Clifton Park and Boston Park has been completed by Landscape Design Associates, as the basis of major funding bids to the Heritage Lottery Fund.    Several members of the Cultural Consortium had been involved in this process.  Costs are estimated at approximately 10 million pounds to develop the two parks, a substantial proportion of which will be sought from external funding. In terms of excellent facilities and the impact on Rotherham, it is believed this will take the town into the next 30/40 years.

An update report would be submitted to a future meeting of this Consortium.

The meeting discussed a number of particular attractions which it was suggested could be enhanced.  These included:-

-                 view from the top of BostonCastle - use as Restaurant/Cafe

-                 renovation of BostonCastle – Interpretation Centre and Viewing Platform

-                 involvement of private developers

Establishment of a new Performance Monitoring System – This would ensure targets are set and circulation of information improved in terms of how RMBC’s services are operating, which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

Joanne Edley, Tourism Manager, attended the meeting and gave an overview of the work which has taken place since January, 2005 in terms of the cross-cutting features of cultural planning and transport network.

Members were provided with a full copy of the Tourism Plan 2005/08 and summary of the Plan which had recently been produced in line with National, Regional, Sub-Regional and local priorities and corporate themes.

The verbal report referred to the following aspects of the work:-

-                       Performance Indicators

-                       Objectives

-                       Facts about Rotherham

-                       Economic Development Study

-                       Importance of Quality Standards

-                       Image, Perception and Promotion of Rotherham

-                       Marketing Plan – Group Travel/Group Operators

-                       Group Travel Guide – Travel and Leisure Packs

-                       New Research/Marketing Business Study/Visitor Centre Survey

-                       Visitors’ Centre – 680,000 visitors a year

-                       Sales – increase in sales of local produce

-                       Walking Festival

-                       Wheel chair user group and a volunteer walk leader – to develop accessible walks with different interest

-                       Exhibitions – TattonPark and NEC Outdoor Show

-                       Oversees work

-                       Conferences

-                       South Yorkshire Destination Management Partnership for Tourism

-                       Occupancy Figures

The Chair made reference to a number of tourism initiatives during the past year – including the success of the Continental Craft Market, Sealed Knot event at Rother Valley CountryPark and the refurbishment of Clifton ParkMuseum.

Members of the Consortium drew attention to the following features which it was felt should be more widely advertised:-

-                       Laughton/Aughton Churches – some of the oldest churches in Rotherham

This was included in the Churches Tourism Initiative.  Information in the Tourism Plan had had to be condensed.  Further information on churches was held in the Visitor Centre, together with an accommodation guide and people were given advice on such aspects upon request.

-                       Could local guide books be sold at the Visitors’ Centre?

RMBC tried not to compete with local book shops.  A number of local books were sold in the Visitors’ Centre and others were bought upon recommendation and if considered to be of local interest to residents and visitors.

A point was made that there is a wealth of history in Rotherham villages.  It was felt important to transfer information stored on videos onto DVD’s to protect them for future generations.

Other interesting events were referred to, which included:-

-                       Tournament Weekend

-                       Opera Performance

-                       Walking Festival

-                       Opening up of MemorialGardens

One member congratulated RMBC for the excellent Visitors’ Centre which attracted people from all over the world. 

Other comments included:-

-                       a list of 100 things to see and do in Rotherham should be made available in the Visitors’ Centre

-                       umbrellas and coloured awnings should be provided for town centre shops during the Summer

-                       quality of town centre food

-                       the benefits to the town of visitors to the Borough recommending events to other people, particularly on the walking festival which had been enjoyed by 1,500 participants

Agreed:-  That Joanne Edley  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

Tony Preston reported the following information as a result of his attendance at a Town Team meeting held recently.

Assurance continued to be given to officers that the replacement and renewal of town centre cultural facilities – e.g. libraries, museum and arts gallery were very much at the heart of town centre renaissance, despite the future of the Tesco supermarket.

The Chair agreed that the Cabinet Member, Economic and Development Services and the Executive Director, Economic and Development Services were totally committed to seeing this happen.

Plans and ethos are in place for renewed cultural facilities that are iconic and these are constantly reiterated in the various meetings to discuss development as a whole in the town centre.

An assurance was given that members of this Consortium would be kept informed as soon as further information was available.

Steve Hallsworth gave a verbal report on the following aspects of work undertaken by working groups since the last meeting:-

Leisure and Green Spaces

Due to various commitments of members, the Green Spaces Advisory Group had not met fully since the last update.  The next coming months would be an interesting time and things would start to happen.

Sports Panel

The Group had met once since the last update.  The Group had visited a number of leisure facilities which had proved to be a useful first hand experience of customers and to demonstrate that RMBC has made some improvements.

It was pointed out that officers were working hard to do the best with current facilities for staff and customers. 

The focus of the group over coming months would be around a more detailed Team Plan.

Specialist Group Meetings

The new Football Development officer was presently contacting key stakeholders with regard to working with them and to see how Advisory Groups could contribute towards his work.  The Development Officer was already a key member in the Sports Strategy.

Heritage, Archives and Tourism/Theatre, Libraries, Museums, Writing and the Arts

Both groups had merged and would be re-thinking the way they needed to work.  They would be in touch with the Consortium in the future.

Questions were asked with regard to:-

-                       Masbrough Juniors (Scrooby Lane) – What is the current situation with regard to the lease?

This matter was ongoing and had been referred to the Regeneration and Asset Board.  There had been an agreement to move forward with negotiations for the lease.

-                       Old Cricket Club, Greasbrough – This belonged to the Earl of Fitzwilliam estate but was becoming overgrown and was derelict.

Every piece of land is classified as an urban or amenity green space as contained in the Local Development Framework, and has a set or proposed use.  In addition, this had been the purpose of the Green Space Strategy – spaces identified by RMBC, through consultation, and suggestions made as to their future use and then to begin to identify which of those spaces there may be a demand for.

-                       What about green spaces land in private ownership?

Two aspects of the Local Development Framework was that (a) you could not dispose of green spaces at will and (b) Government has placed great emphasis on the use of brown land. The current view of Rotherham planners is that a great deal of brown land has yet to be used before it is possible to grant permission for anything previously used as green space.  What development takes place in general will be on land that is clear of housing or some other industrial use, and used again.  All restrictions on green land apply whether it is private or council-owned land. 

This matter would be looked into and reported back to this Consortium.

The meeting discussed Volume 3 of the Draft Cultural Strategy Action Plan (2^nd edition September 2005) compiled by Tony Preston.

The Action Plan had been realigned with the Council’s strategic priorities, the Community Strategy, the Culture & Leisure Service Plan 2005-2008, and the Rotherham Tourism Plan 2005-08.

The information covered the following aspects:-

-                       objectives in relation to performance indicators

-                       major achievements within the service

-                       priorities identifying aspirations of local community groups

Members were asked to consider the information and ambitions of the groups they are representing, check they meet the overall objectives of the Corporate Plan and Cultural Strategy and feed back any comments by the middle of November in order for this to be reported back to the next meeting.

Simultaneously, a consultation will take place with other cultural sector organisations in Rotherham.

Following final consultation with the Cultural Consortium in early 2006, the document will be printed and widely circulated.

Members raised the following issues:-

-                       Play area improvements – one particular village was in desperate need of funding for this facility

The Big Lottery Fund had given preliminary indication of a major funding grant, the detail of which was likely to be announced in January, 2006 and likely to be looking for applications in the first half of 2006.  It may be an allocation programme or bidding programme. Priority sites would be identified within the criteria of the fund once further details were known. 

-                       Percentage of library users – cost to order DVD - send a fax – and order old books

An explanation was given on how Authorities were judged against Library Standards.  The Council then has to manage the various aspects of its service within existing resources.  One option could be not to provide DVD’s, for example. 

There used to be 25 library standards but there was now only 12, one of which was the amount of stock/volume a library holds.  This should encourage libraries to hold on to books.  However, another standard judged by DCMS is the speed at which they turn over the stock.  The Council had written to DCMS stating this is a contradiction.  Issues raised at this meeting would be discussed with the Libraries, Museum and Arts Manager.

The meeting discussed the contents of a Draft Statement of Cultural Entitlement.  The document set out a number of cultural services for residents across all age groups.

The document, which showed the split between local and community services and borough wide services, gave an indication of the progress on these aims.

Part of the Green Space Plan to be considered at the conclusion of the consultation, will show the priorities are split for green spaces.

In addition, the document set out the priorities of the Programme Area.  In most cases these additional services and opportunities will be funded through special grants and funds which may become available from time to time.

People who live in areas that are not deemed to be areas of deprivation may feel aggrieved but RMBC had to take advantage of funding and conform to funding criteria.

Members of the Consortium were asked to consider the document and feed back any comments to Phil Rogers.  A composite list of all parts of the Borough would then be compiled.

The meeting was informed that a report would shortly be submitted to a meeting of the Cabinet Member, Lifelong Learning containing details of a draft proposal for a consistent framework for the way Cultural Services set prices to reflect the Council’s own priorities.

Members of the Consortium would then be contacted individually for their views on these proposals.

The meeting discussed arrangements for the next Cultural Conference.

Members of the Consortium agreed it was a useful event.

Members of the Consortium suggested suitable themes could be active leisure, recreation, green spaces and sport, which ought to include the involvement of Friends Groups.

A suggestion was to involve the Primary Care Trust in terms of sport and health issues.

Agreed:-  (1)  That a Cultural Conference be arranged for 2006.

(2)  That a Working Party be formed to help and assist with the arrangements for the Conference and that a letter be sent to all Members of the Consortium containing details of the next stage.

The meeting discussed the contents of a report to the Regeneration Board on 15^th December, 2004 which set out progress made against the current programme of the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder and Design Code.

The report and minute extract was submitted for information.

The meeting was reminded that officers from Economic and Development Services had attended the last meeting of the Consortium, with particular regard to the Westgate Project.

The project, which is a lengthy programme, would be an enormous improvement to housing in the Borough.

Agreed:-  That the report be received.

Agreed:-  That the next meeting be held on Wednesday, 7^th December, 2005 at 2.00 p.m.