Just come back from the second meeting of the User Groups. This time we met with Caroline Fenton the consultant to give our views. There was around 20 people attending and we were supported by Martin Tod - the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Lib Dems. All of the Users expressed there views about why the Tower is such a valuable asset - the message certainly got home loud and clear!

A lot of different ideas were discussed concerning different approaches that could be taken to funding, the different partnerships that could be looked into and the different ideas on increasing revenue.

The consensus amongst the users was:

• that the time available within the consultation is too short to properly explore these options;


• the users felt that the narrow terms of reference given to Caroline would restrict her ability to explore the wider context of art in Winchester and Hampshire

Our preferred option for the meeting is 1st November - I will pass this onto Nicola Horsey