Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Jim Blakely, Helen Helme, Rob Smith, Malcolm Thomas and Jude Towers.

Members were advised that Councillor Evelyn Archer had declared a personal and prejudicial interest in the item of business on the agenda as Chairman of the Winter Gardens Trust and for this reason was not present at the meeting.

Members also declared the following interests:

Councillors June Ashworth and Jane Fletcher declared personal interests as Board Members in relation to the Dukes Theatre referred to in the report.

Councillors Sarah Fishwick and Roger Mace declared personal interests as Board Members in relation to the Vision Board, from whom correspondence relating to the report had been received.

To consider the report of the Chief Executive.

(Councillors June Ashworth and Jane Fletcher declared personal interests as Board Members in relation to the Dukes Theatre referred to in the report.  Councillors Sarah Fishwick and Roger Mace declared personal interests as Board Members in relation to the Vision Board, from whom correspondence relating to the report had been received.  Members were advised that Councillor Evelyn Archer had declared a personal and prejudicial interest in the item of business on the agenda as Chairman of the Winter Gardens Trust and for this reason was not present at the meeting.)

The Chief Executive presented a comprehensive report to enable Council to determine what support it should give to the Morecambe Winter Gardens Preservation Trust’s project to restore the Winter Gardens in response to the letter from the Trust appended to the report.

He drew Members attention to the fact that the Trust were putting forward just one proposal and with the deadline for the Sea Change funding application being the following day, there was no opportunity at this stage to seek to switch to an alternative proposal.  There were therefore only two options available to the Council – to endorse the Trust’s objectives and support the proposal subject to conditions as necessary to properly protect the Council’s interests or to decline to endorse the Trust’s proposals.

He further highlighted the fundamental questions contained in the report which Council needed to consider:

·         Whether the Trust proposal would make for a viable and sustainable use for the Winter Gardens

·         Whether the Council shares the Trust’s ambitions for the building as part of the regeneration of Morecambe

·         Whether the Council considers that the proposal warrants the substantial financial and service investment and change to the delivery of Council services and whether the Council can afford it.

Members were then invited to ask questions of the Chief Executive, Corporate Director (Regeneration) and Senior Project Officer, Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer.

At the conclusion of questions by Council it was moved by Councillor Bryning and seconded by Councillor Sherlock, in relation to the first recommendation in the report:

‘That Council does not, in principle, at this time, support a restructuring of its cultural services to help finance the Winter Gardens project nor the closure of the Platform facility or the redirection of other resources away from cultural venues across the District.’

The recommendations set out in the report were then moved by Councillor Langhorn and seconded by Councillor Gilbert by way of an amendment as follows:

(1)               That the Council supports, in principle, the restructuring of its cultural services provision centred around the Winter Gardens, accepting that this would involve closure of the Platform, in addition to the scheduled closure of the Dome, as well as the redirection of other resources away from other cultural venues across the district.

(2)               That Cabinet be requested to develop these and other budget savings proposals in order to provide full funding for the Winter Gardens project (both one-off and ongoing revenue, and any capital elements), and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 142.