A great turnout for Thursdays celebration of the Tower. This time we managed to get the media to attend in droves - on the link on the left you can see clips from a few of the TV and Radio shows that covered the event.



Particular thanks to Sam Cousins for organising such a great show.


Miles Banister, Christopher Jarman and Jane Jessop spoke at Full Council. The Winchester County Councillors also submitted some written questions.

The County seem as intransigent as ever. Despite giving Art Centres in New Milton and Aldershot three years to find alternate funding - they seem intent on closing the Tower as an Art Centre. The Tower receives the lowest subsidy from the County and is better supported by the District. In addittion to this, in a little over a week, we now have individual pledges totaling £16,000.

None of us can understand why the Conservative County Council are taking such a harsh view of Winchester. I am left to wonder whether it is politically motivated........Is it because Aldershot and New Milton are conservative dominated?

Tower Arts campaigners gain apology at http://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/search/display.var.1852144.0.tower_arts_campaigners_gain_apology.php

A Fun, Entertaining, Colorful Media Spectacle: Taking the Tower to the Castle

Following the largest Public Meeting in Winchester in 30 years, SaveTowerArts now plan to celebrate the Tower Arts Centre at Full County Council Meeting at the Castle in Winchester on Thursday 22nd November.

Campaigner John Golley said “We don’t think any of the County Councillors in the cabinet have ever attended the Tower – so we thought we could take the Tower to the Council!”


It promises to be a highly visual and entertaining spectacle. Following his now famous appearance at the Public Meeting, Henry VIII will be making a re-appearance. Jonathan the Jester is expected to add some frivolity to proceedings

Sam Cousins of TAPAS and Blue Apple fame has organised for the “Sing Our Hearts Out” choir to be there. They will be performing a number of songs including Seasons of Love and medleys from Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables.

Performance Arts Winchester Resident Director Adam Graham and the cast from “A Christmas Carol” will be performing extracts from their Christmas production. University of Winchester students will also be providing readings from their upcoming production of "Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick" - a tribute to the Carry On films.

The campaigners will be handing out a booklet “A celebration of the Tower” including contributions from Tower users, tutors and performers to demonstrate the broad range of activities enjoyed by the many Tower users.

Parents of children at a local Primary School will be celebrating their magnificent Heroes portraits – produced in conjunction with the Tower.

The notorious campaigners “masked and mysterious” will be there. They promise to reveal there true identities when the Tower is saved

The campaign team will be presenting the 1,200 strong petition requesting that the County Council retain the Tower Arts Centre Winchester in its current form and with the present management and staff for three years whilst a solution to the funding issues is investigated. They will have 10 minutes to present their case to Full Council.

The event starts at 9am Thursday 22nd November at the Council Chamber, Castle Hill, Winchester (opposite the Hampshire Hog statue). The campaigners will be presenting a petition to the Full County Council starting at 10am. Our intention is to have a fun and entertain with a colorful media spectacle which may well be our last chance to lobby the decision makers on the future of one of Winchesters most iconic theatre, arts and music venue’s.

Letters to your County Councillors are key at this stage. Contact details at http://www.writetothem.com/. Don't forget the pledges - there is a link on the left.

Lots to tell you about.............. Let's start with whats happened since the public meeting. Well, first we have set up a pledge form. The idea is to give Tower supporters the chance to pledge money, time or services to The Tower on the condition that it is givewn three years to find more secure funding - more detail on the link.

Despite all the protests - the County appear to be determined to transfer the Tower to the school even without a business case from them. Councillor Thornber made the presentation of the business case one of the conditions of the consultation period - lets hope he presses for this over the next couple of weeks (see http://www.hants.gov.uk/decisions/decisions-docs/070718-execpr-R0723104816.html for his decision day document)

I have received a number of letters referring to an Ombudsman review of the process that has been undertaken. My view is that it is premature to go down this line at this stage. The key thing is to keep the pressure up on the County Council in the lead up to full council next week - so please e-mail your local county councillor urgently. You could forward any correspondence that you have previously sent to the County Council with a short cover note. I would also include your city councillor and your MP. You can find all your local representatives at an excellent web-site called http://www.writetothem.com/

Inconsistencies from the County Council

In the same decision day document (point 2.1), you can see that the prime justification of the original decision by Councillor Snaith in July was "The opening of the Discovery Centre in November 2007 and the increased programme of community involvement at the Kings' School presents an ideal opportunity to transfer most of the Tower's activities to the Discovery Centre as soon as it opens. This will bring its much valued activities to the centre of Winchester and provide the Kings' School with extra capacity for developing its community links and offer."

Now that the Felton report has clearly stated that the Discovery Centre is not appropriate for the vast majority - Councillor Snaith is now saying that it was never the main driver behind the decision. There is an interview with Councillor Snaith on Dream FM tomorrow morning where hopefully she will respond to these inconsistencies.

We have manged to track down some photos of the Public Meeting on 1st November - thanks to local photographer Joe Low.

Official number of attendees from the Guildhall was 450. I am told that this makes this the biggest public meeting in Winchester since the 1970's!! Confirmation, if it was ever needed, that the people of Winchester certainly care about the Tower

.

'Enry V

Reflections on the last Week

It was a roller-coaster week for the SaveTowerArts campaign.

On Wednesday I presented a petition to Winchester City Council for urgent funding to allow for a more strategic review. Over 1,000 signatures were collected in 7 days! This was positively received by George Beckett, the City Council Leader, who vouched to “leave no stone unturned” in looking for a solution that met all the stakeholders requirements.

On Thursday around 500 people flocked to the Guildhall for the long awaited Public Meeting. The crowd listened patiently to County Councillor Snaith and the consultant’s presentation of the options appraisal. The crowd then burst into spontaneous and rapturous applause when Miles Banister gave a formal response from the SaveTowerArts campaign team.

The evening was full of the panel evading direct questions and contradicting itself. The incompetence that was shown by Hampshire County Council last night left everyone in the room dumbfounded – “like a car crash in slow motion” was one persons’ assessment. My view was that it was more of a debacle than a debate.

The view held by the campaign team is that Councillor Snaith has misled the members of the public that attended this meeting. In a July Press she said that "the extensive programme of arts currently provided at the Tower Arts Centre in Winchester will continue under the management of neighbouring Kings’ School and as a key part of the exciting Discovery Centre development in the city"The Consultants report clearly states that Kings school is not interested in, and that the Discovery Centre is not appropriate for, the current Evening Programme. When pressed on this - Councillor Snaith amazingly distanced herself from her original statement by denying making the statement in the first place!

Alarmingly, Councillor Snaith also seemed blissfully unaware that Kings’ School had given Hampshire County Council an ultimatum to decide by 7th December or they would pull out.

The campaign team’s position continues to be to press for a reasonable amount of time to explore a partnership of funders and stakeholders so that it can deliver a full range of daytime and evening activities. The Kings’ School option is aspirational and lacks detail. The County would be in dereliction of its duties to the ratepayers if this decision was to go through on this basis.
A show of hands at the end of the meeting confirmed that the continuation of the Tower in its current form had overwhelming support.
The Leader of the County Council, Ken Thornber, has previously given assurances that this is a proper consultation process. The campaign group does not agree – they believe that the decision has already been made.

Fantastically attended meeting last night - nearly 500 people turned out to hear about the plans for the Tower. Support for keeping the Tower as it is was overwhelming! Councillor Snaith was told, in no uncertain terms, that the people of Winchester and Hampshire demand the Tower to stay.

The transfer to Kings School was seen to be lacking any detail.

In a July Press Release Councillor Snaith said that "the extensive programme of arts currently provided at the Tower Arts Centre in Winchester will continue under the management of neighbouring Kings’ School and as a key part of the exciting Discovery Centre development in the city"

The Consultants report clearly states that Kings school is not interested in, and that the Discovery Centre is not appropriate for, the Evening Programme. Councillor Snaith amazingly distanced herself from this by denying making the statement in the first place! See the full Press Release athttp://www3.hants.gov.uk/communications/mediacentre/mediareleases.htm?newsid=151959