I thought it was worth reflecting on what has happened over the last four months - so a sort of potted history:

June

On the 17th June, a story was leaked to the press about a proposal by Hampshire County Council to transfer the Tower Arts Centre to Kings School on 1st January 2008.

Despite very little time to react some of the Tower Arts users presented a deputation to Margaret Snaith

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

As the Election fever bee buzzes in the ears of the good people of Winchester - I can hear the many local Tower protestors cry out for the latest news on the campaign. So how is Winchester doing in the Performance Art Public Spending League.

With the threat of removing £115k of the £501k connected to the Tower - Winchester looks sure to be playing in the Vauxhall Conference Cultural Deprivation League next year. But not if the loyal fans can help it.......

The knight in shining armour - let me introduce Caroline Felton. Caroline has been appointed by Winchester City Council to perform an options appraisal for the Tower (I hear that Jose Morinho was interviewed - but Caroline won through!). We have a chance to meet her on Monday. She is very interested in hearing the views of the Tower users - what makes it such a special place? This is our chance to give the Tower the praise it so richly deserves. If you can't come on Monday - please send me any comments so that I can pass them on (e-mail address is alistairwmarsden@yahoo.co.uk)

I've just come direct from a great meeting at the Tower with Nicola Horsley - Head of Arts, Tourism and Marketing at the County Council. We had 8 people representing the different user groups at the Tower. Steve Brine (Conservative PPC for Winchester) also attended to give support.

What a difference!!! The approach was worlds apart from the "consultation" in the lead up to the June decision. Nicola was very open and listened to the views from the Tower Users.

We saw for the first time the proposed brief for the Consultant on the options appraisal. Clearly a lot of thought had been put into the brief. All the users and Steve Brine raised a concern that the terms of reference were to narrow - they are focussed exclusively on the options for the future management of the Tower. Our understanding was that Councillor Thornbers intentions were to look at the Tower within the wider context of Winchester and Hampshire with the aim of informing a sensible debate about the future of Arts provision within the area. We expressed our view that the terms of reference should take a more strategic review of arts provision - including options for partnership between the Discovery Centre and the Theatre Royal.

We also felt that the terms of reference should specifically look at successful models operating within other authorities (e.g. Basingstoke and Reading).

Nicola will consider both of these suggestions.

The Consultant will be working to a very tight in terms of timescale - appointment of consultant by 21 September, the interim report to be published in mid October - with a public meeting in early November.

With this short timescale in mind - I would strongly encourage you to write again to your local representatives to give your views so that they can be taken into account within the consultation (see Blog entry for 24th June to get contacts). I would cc Nicola at nicola.horsey@hants.gov.uk and Marilyn Michalowicz (at MMichalowicz@WINCHESTER.GOV.UK) Marilyn is the Winchester City Council Arts Development Officer. Letters to the press would also keep us in the news at this crucial time.

We plan to have another meeting on Monday 1st October. Please let me or Lynda Bannister know if you are able to attend.

Finally........ see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVr0mWf-bV8 to hear what the late, great Dinah Washington has to say about it all.

Meeting tomorrow at the Tower!!!

The petition has now broken 1,100 and is still going strong.

Councillor Thornber last week confirmed the decision to go to proper consultation and to extend the Tower for a minimum of one more season. More details at http://www.hants.gov.uk/decisions/decisions-docs/070913-execpr-R0906125116.html

An initial meeting with Nicola Horsey of the County Council will take place tomorrow , Monday 17th September at the Tower at 7.30pm. Nicola will explain the consultation process that is planned and will be there to answer any questions that we have. It would be great to see as many campaigners as possible there!

I will be asking the following tomorrow:

1. Can we review and give input to the terms of reference of the the options appraisal.


2. Can we review and give input to the questions used in the telephone survey.


3. More details on how the Tower users will be consulted with.

We are in the process of trying to form a working group. There are a couple of areas where we are short on representation. Please let me know if you are interested - or know anyone that is interested - especially in the following:

• TAPAS - organisers and/or parents of children that attend


• Attendees and/or organiser of the Half Term workshops


• Performers or agents

Some great shows comingh up in the next couple of weeks - Average Blues Band, Magical History Tour, Swarbrick and Carthy and the extremely funny Mundo Jazz. Hope to see you there.....

Ring those Bells - The Tower can continue booking until the Spring 2008 !!!!!

Some good news. HCC have effectively reversed the decision made by Councillor Snaith in July to transfer the Tower to Kings' School. They have allowed the Tower to continue bookings until Spring 2008 and pushed the decision up to the Council Leader - Ken Thornber. The decision will be made on 7th December. It will at last be subject to a detailed consultation because HCC have also promised to carry out a proper investigation of all the options -including a wide consultation. This is clearly great news and what we have asked for all along.

This is thanks to all the campaigners and to the local Lib Dem Councillors (Phyrn Dickens, Alexis Fall and many others - too many to mention by name) and to James Stephens the local Conservative City Councillor. They have all been superb. The support from the two main prospective parliamentary candidates - Martin Tod (Lib Dem) and Steve Brine (Conservatives) has been invaluable. It is clear that this has been a campaign that has been fought by people from all political spectrums.

The staff at the Tower have been through a pretty tough time over the last few months with all the uncertainty. They all do a great job - often under very trying conditions!!! They will be really busy over the next few weeks putting the Spring Programme together - again with the Sword of Damocles hanging over them! If anyone can put a Programme together in such a short time and in the face of adversity - it's our man John and his team.

It's really important that we increase the awareness of the Tower and fill the house for the upcoming Programme. The Tower does not have a lot of resources to allocate to marketing - so lets spread the news informally. Let all your friends, work colleagues and family know what a great venue it is. You could e-mail the link to the Tower web-site to all your local contacts http://www.towerarts.co.uk/. There are some great things coming up. Ask anyone at the Tower or any of the campaigners how else you can help

The full details of the consultation are at http://www3.hants.gov.uk/communications/mediacentre/mediareleases.htm?newsid=167465&stDate. It promises consultation with a Tower Users working group, a review by a consultant to look at options for a sustainable future and a survey of Winchester residents by a research agency. Very different from the (lack of) consultation carried out in the lead up to the decision by Councillor Snaith in early July.

I hope that all the stakeholders can draw a line under what has happened in the lead up to the previous decision. Let's move forward and do the right thing for the people of Winchester and Hampshire.

Let the Summer last for one more week!!

As the memories of sand, sea and sangria drift away and we return to the rain, routine and rigmarole of our everyday lives........thoughts return to the gripping battle to Save the Tower. So whats happened.....

• The petition is now at 1059 !!! This is way beyond my expectations and it is still growing rapidly through the summer lull. A lot of performers like Fairport Convention, Paul Jones, Swarbrick and Carthy have signed up (see attached link for a full list). Keep spreading the news.....


• If you recall at the meeting in mid-July Councillor Thornber deferred the decision to 13th September to allow for a wider consultation with users and staff, to allow Kings' School to put a proper business case together so that he could get assurances that community arts would not be eroded and to ensure that the view of HAT had been taken into account.


• I am not aware of any progress on any of these points. The long awaited consultation with the users has certainly not happened. My understanding is that the officers of HCC will ask Councillor Thornber for a deferral to October 19th to allow this consultation to take place.


• I have done some digging around alternate funding arrangements. There are some interesting options that would be worth pursuing if we are given a reasonable amount of time to pursue.


• I have also researched into a number of ways of generating more revenue or reducing costs. There are a number of promising options including increasing the partnership with Kings to increase usage and/or partnering with the Discovery Centre and maybe even the Theatre Royal to reduce running costs. This last option is used very successfully by the Anvil/Haymarket and Forge in Basingstoke.


• Over the next few days - Lynda Bannister will be meeting representatives from HCC to get an update from them.


• I hope to meet up with members of the HAT committee over the next couple of weeks to discuss these options. I really belive there is a deal to be done that can meet everyones needs - so fingers crossed.


• We are hoping to form a small action group to share some of the work on the campaign. If you have some time to dedicate to this - please let me know.

In the meantime - keep

TTFN

Alistair