Agenda item

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Sands)

Report of the Head of Community Engagement

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Sands)

Mr John Angus, Director of the Storey Gallery, who had registered to speak on this item in accordance with the City Council’s agreed procedure and Cabinet Procedure Rule 2.7, spoke on behalf of the Storey Gallery.

Cabinet received a report from the Head of Community Engagement to seek members’ views as to future arrangements regarding the Council’s Service Level Agreement with the Storey Gallery.

The options, options analysis, including risk assessment and officer preferred option, were set out in the report as follows:

The options were to:

(1)        Accept the proposals put forward by the Storey Gallery Company, subject to gaining clarity on the funding of its future ‘infrastructure’ costs (see financial implications).

(2)        Reject or amend in some way the proposals put forward.

No specific officer recommendation was put forward, but attention was drawn to the comments in section 2 of the report summarised as follows:

Since the October meeting of Cabinet there has been ongoing correspondence including proposals by the Storey Gallery Company set out in Appendix A to the report.  No further information was available to assist Cabinet regarding the company’s new direction, other than to quote from the company’s consultant’s report that was presented to Cabinet on 9 October, contained in paragraph 2.3 of the report on the agenda. In terms of the third part of the company’s request, Officer’s views were that it is for the company to decide whether it wished to apply to the Arts Council for funding, rather than it being a matter for the Council.

The City Council has had in place a longstanding SLA with the Storey Gallery Company. The current financial and operational difficulty the company was facing had led to the closure of the gallery space and a review of its current operational and financial arrangements.  The proposal put forward by the Storey Gallery Company attempted to find an interim solution to the company’s current difficulties, to give it time to determine its future.

Councillor Leytham proposed, seconded by Councillor Sands:-

“(1)      That Cabinet agrees to underwrite the rent and service charges on the office currently occupied in the Storey Institute until the end of February 2013 to allow sufficient time for an application to be made to the Arts Council.

(2)        That Cabinet agrees to support in principle the proposed new direction (noting the existence of such support from County Council and Arts Council)

(3)        That Cabinet reaffirms its decision taken on the 9 October 2012 to keep the £10,700 grant held back until detailed proposals regarding any specific project are brought forward by the company for consideration by Cabinet.”

Councillors then voted:-

Resolved unanimously:

(1)        That Cabinet agrees to underwrite the rent and service charges on the office currently occupied in the Storey Institute until the end of February 2013 to allow sufficient time for an application to be made to the Arts Council.

(2)        That Cabinet agrees to support in principle the proposed new direction (noting the existence of such support from County Council and Arts Council)

(3)        That Cabinet reaffirms its decision taken on the 9 October 2012 to keep the £10,700 grant held back until detailed proposals regarding any specific project are brought forward by the company for consideration by Cabinet.

Officers responsible for effecting the decision:

Head of Community Engagement

Head of Resources

Reasons for making the decision:

The decision fits with the Corporate Plan Economic Growth priority:  Support arts in the district working with the Arts Partnership.  Underwriting the rent and services charges could be perceived as in-kind matched funding and proposals to the Arts Council required an element of match funding.  The decision allows for a further report back to Cabinet regarding specific projects.