To receive questions in accordance with the provisions of Council Procedure Rules 11.1 and 11.3 which require members of the public to give at least 3 days’ notice in writing of questions to a Member of Cabinet or Committee Chairman.
Minutes:
The Mayor advised that two questions had been received from members of the public in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, Ms Julia Krier and Ms Holly Blackwell. Copies of the questions had been circulated at the commencement of the meeting.
The Mayor invited the first questioner, Ms Julia Krier, to put her question to the Council, which was:
"Where in the City Museum is it proposed that the Visitor Information Centre be relocated?"
A response was given by the Cabinet Member for Leisure, Tourism, Culture and Climate Change, Councillor Clifford. He thanked Ms Krier to attending to ask her question and said:
“The option to relocate the Visitor Information Centre (VIC) in the City Museum is at an early stage and has not yet been consulted upon, developed or fully assessed so, at this time, no decision has been made on where the VIC would be located in the City Museum. However, to meet service user requirements and to encourage additional visitors to the museum, the VIC would need to be on the ground floor reasonably close to the main customer access point.
Bearing in mind space constraints and the aspiration to make museums more accessible to our communities and to visitors, officers are currently developing options for use of a range of other spaces in the city and the district to deliver a wider programme of museums exhibitions and activities.”
Ms Krier asked a supplementary question:
“What will be the nature and timing of the consultation?”
Councillor Clifford explained that a report would go to Cabinet and this could possibly be to the new Cabinet after the elections on 2nd May 2019.
The Mayor thanked Ms Krier for asking her questions. He then invited Ms Holly Blackwell to put her question, which was to the Leader of the Council, Councillor Blamire:
“My name is Holly. I am one of the eight members of the Musicians’ Coop Steering Group. This group is making sure we carry out the work that is needed to fulfil the decision of council to rescind the eviction order, to do necessary structural repairs and to have a lease in place by the end of July this year. We are happy to say that as a result of steering group work, all the conditions set by council were fulfilled in December so that after some unexpected difficulties before Christmas the first part of the council’s decision has been carried out and the eviction order was rescinded.
So now we are focused on making the building structurally sound, safe and watertight. We know from our architect and surveyor of the amount of work necessary and we also know that in order to get the lease in place this work needs to be planned, prepared for, and completed, by June 2019 at the latest. The council motion stated that the Council is “accepting responsibility for the most significant urgent structural repairs needed to make the building safe”.
We want a high quality job done to the standards you expect on a building that is your asset and we know, as Councillors, you want that done for the best possible price. As a community of musicians and supporters of the Coop we want to line up the estimates from contractors and we know that using our connections will ensure they are best value for high specifications. So my question is:
How and when is the money promised by Full Council for the “urgent structural repairs” going to be released to the Musicians’ Coop in order for this work to be carried out?”
Councillor Blamire replied:
“Thank you for your question.
A capital bid to ‘Undertake the most significant/urgent structural repairs at 1 Lodge Street’ has been considered and accepted at an Informal Cabinet Meeting on 28 January 2019. This capital bid for £358k covers structural repairs as well as remedy of dry rot, damp and woodworm.
The scheme will be added to the Council’s Capital Programme which will be considered by Cabinet at 12 February 2019 and by Full Budget Council on 27 February 2019.
The improvement works to the Musicians Coop building will be guided by the building condition surveys. Once finalised a consultant engineer will be commissioned to undertake the detailed design work with contractors subsequently procured in line with the Councils procurement processes under the supervision of Property Group. The representatives of the Musician’s Co-op will be kept informed as the project develops.”
Ms Blackwell asked, by way of a supplementary question, whether Councillor Blamire would personally be supporting the refurbishment of the building in the 2019/20 budget.
Councillor Blamire assured Ms Blackwell that, whilst she could not commit herself to any figure that was not in the budget, she did want to see the work done.
After thanking Ms Blackwell for attending to ask her question, the Mayor passed the Chair to the Deputy Mayor to chair the following items on Climate Change, because he was a signatory to the petition and had put his name forward to second the motion on notice.