Response to Darlington Borough Council Budget Consultation

25 May 2016

Final Version

Darlington for Culture Limited

Address: Heritage House, 10 Houndgate, Darlington, DL1 5RF

Email:

Website: www.darlingtonforculture.org

Twitter: @darlo4culture

IPS Number - 31264R

Introduction

It is with a heavy heart that Darlington for Culture responds formally to Darlington Borough Council’s 2016 budget consultation. The latest budget reductions will leave virtually no aspects of the social, economic and cultural life of our town untouched. Whilst these cuts will have a hugely negative impact there are glimmers of hope about the future. There are positive developments taking place in the town, including the transformation of our Edwardian theatre and construction of a new children’s theatre. There is also a golden opportunity for the town to come together collectively so that Darlington thrives for all, with community and civic action at its heart.

This budget response provides some context to the cuts, our views and very realistic alternative proposals to prevent closure of some of our most precious cultural assets and services. It also provides views about how we might make the best of that golden opportunity to work collectively in the future.

Darlington for Culture is not a small group of individuals, it is a movement of all those who care about the cultural life of our town. We are confident that this response represents the work and views of our community. We are an enabling and co-operative organisation with a mission to create the conditions where arts, craft and culture can flourish for the benefit of everyone in Darlington, the wider region and beyond. This means we don’t think any one organisation can do things by themselves and a key part of our role is to enable those with great talent in our community to work collectively to achieve amazing things. This approach and philosophy has underpinned all of our efforts in thinking about how to respond to the budget proposals and in supporting alternative proposals. We think that the excellent proposals for the future of our library service, reflects how successful this approach can be.

Background and context

DfC is very concerned about the damage Darlington Borough Council’s budget proposals will cause to the social cohesion and life of our town. We are outraged by the Government’s swingeing spending settlement. We have encouraged as many people as possible to sign The Northern Echo created petition against unfair Government cuts to Darlington. However, adding insult to injury, the Government reply doesn’t even mention Darlington or even attempt to justify the devastating impact of the cuts they are imposing on our town.

However, we do not believe that the Council should be completely absolved from blame for proposals to close three libraries, end a therapeutic arts service for those with enduring mental health problems and put a centre for visual arts at real risk of closure. We feel that there has been a missed opportunity by the Council to present the budget reductions as a crisis for the town, rather than the Council, and to work with everyone in the town on how to best deal with this. In this way we could have all worked together to developed collective and effective solutions – rather than being presented with a whole series of closure plans to respond to.

In working with the community and organisations across the town we not only think that precious cultural assets will be saved, we also believe it would help support the Tees Valley City of Culture 2025 bid.

We deplore the proposed closure of Crown Street and Cockerton Libraries and the withdrawal of the mobile library service. We remain to be convinced that the proposed replacement library in the Dolphin Centre will be anywhere near an adequate replacement.

It is no surprise that the proposals to close libraries have sparked anger and Darlington for Culture will oppose these cuts because libraries are not just important cultural institutions but socially valuable and about much more than books.

For readers, libraries are an important part of many people’s lives, enabling them to access books without having to pay for them, allowing people of all ages and all backgrounds to add richness to their lives. In addition, many children access books at libraries, supporting what often becomes a lifelong passion for reading.

Closing Crown Street and Cockerton will adversely affect the lives of thousands of people, including the diverse groups that use these valuable community resources. Libraries host a wide range of community services and groups and all this is threatened. The computers contained in both libraries are a lifeline for many people who use them to apply for jobs, apply for benefits and access information.

In addition, we fear that the decision will result in the loss of the town’s art gallery, which currently resides in Crown Street Library and which has attracted many thousands of people to view a wide variety of works of art. We also fear that the closure of Crown Street will come at significant cost to the Council if they can’t sell the building, which is a real possibility if they can’t remove the covenant stating that the 1885 section of the building should remain as a library forever. The Council has estimated it would cost £70k per year inmaintenanceand security if Crown Street library stood empty, given their legal obligations relating to the building, which is grade 2 listedfco. Lambeth Council recently spent £2,212 per day to guard two libraries and Sunderland Council have spent over £180k in the last three years maintaining closed libraries. We would in addition challenge several of the underlying cost assumptions.

In the case of Cockerton Library, Darlington Borough Council has had several opportunities to work with the community over the past three years in order to devise a future for the Library and has failed to take advantage of them. Darlington for Culture has been one of the organisations ready to help with the right support and has been involved in many of the discussions.

The proposal to scrap the mobile library alarms us as well because of the service it provides to nurseries, schools, isolated communities and some of the most vulnerable in society.

We have demonstrated the depth of public anger at the library proposals through the protest that we organised, which around 1,000 people took part in. In addition around 1,000 people have joined the Save Crown Street Facebook page and many have got behind The Northern Echo’s libraries campaign by signing their petition coupons.

We believe the proposal to end Openarts will have a devastating impact on the people who use and will have the chance to use this service in future. This service is aimed at improving mental wellbeing and helps transforms the lives of some of the most vulnerable in our society through the power of art. We are angered that the proposals for the public health budget don’t seem to contain any funding at all to support better mental health. We are saddened that local health organisations either don’t seem to care or haven’t been properly asked about helping to save this invaluable service, which aims to prevent ill health and reduce reliance on health services.

The proposal to take away any subsidy to The Bridge is also of concern to us. This venue not only houses Openarts but since the closure of our Arts Centre has been vital to support local visual artists and other community arts projects. As we have said many times we believe that arts and culture are vital in supporting the economic, as well as social and cultural life of our town.

But the Bridge is much more than this. It offers a unique programme of creative opportunity that truly benefits people from all backgrounds, interests and abilities; held in an accessible, safe and respected venue. Mainly through Openarts, The Bridge has supported the de-stigmatisation and understanding of learning and physical difficulties, alongside mental health experiences, in this unique community venue.

We are a little staggered that so far the only offer to the community in taking on The Bridge has included charging significant rental (on top of repairs and maintenance) or purchase at commercial cost. We would have thought the Council would consider some form of peppercorn rent or transfer, on the basis that they are not then stuck with the liabilities for repairs and maintenance. And that the potential social and cultural outcomes that a transfer would generate would outweigh the relatively modest capital that a sale would realise.

Rather than just protesting, we have, as we have always done, tried to support alternative positive solutions. In trying to encourage the development of alternative proposals to scrapping some of our most precious cultural services we started by engaging the whole community. We have encouraged the best ideas and talent via a public meeting, our website and social media. In thinking through alternatives we recognise that we need to come up with cost neutral solutions that don’t mean further cuts in other vital services. We have also been very grateful for the support and challenge from the Council in helping develop these proposals.

By way of balance we should say that we are very pleased about:

·  The project to refurbish our wonderful theatre.

·  The project to build a new children’s theatre.

·  The proposal that the Head of Steam should remain open.

·  The proposed support and budget for cultural events and festivals, including maintaining (at least some) of the excellent Council events team.

Alternative proposals

Library service – An incredibly talented range of individuals have come together to put together a very robust and intelligent proposal for how to develop the library service. The proposal outlines how a Charitable Incorporated Organisation could be set up to take responsibility for the library buildings at both Crown Street and at Cockerton. These would become well-equipped community hubs, offering a wide range of services and activities for the community, with the anticipated result of increasing library usage, and generating sufficient income to support the buildings. We believe that the Council should take this excellent proposal very seriously. This proposal is submitted along with this budget response in a separate document.

Openarts – We believe Openarts should be saved (albeit perhaps focused on working with those with most in need) through a combination of the 2015/16 underspend for Openarts and some of the money that might have been directed for Festival of Thrift. This amount of funding would also enable us to go to the CCG with an offer of match funding, given the hugely significant health outcomes and cost savings to the health budget Openarts can deliver. There are fantastic examples of CCGs working with the third sector on social prescribing, including referral to therapeutic arts projects e.g. Ways to Wellness in Newcastle and Gateshead and a partnership between Voluntary Action Rotherham and Rotherham CCG, which is having fantastic results. We are more than happy to advise on and support a solution for Openarts.

The Bridge – We believe that The Bridge can be saved by the Council working with the steering group that has been set up, on the basis of some form of peppercorn rent or transfer, meaning the Council is not stuck with the liabilities for repairs and maintenance. To help mitigate the risks an established third sector organisation or a community trust could be involved. The sustainability of the building would seem promising based on the rental income that is achieved at the moment, so we do believe this proposal is very realistic and again are happy to lend our support.

With all of these alternative proposals we are asking the Council to provide more time for a whole range of people and organisations to work with them to make them a success. We hope that the Council grasps these exciting opportunities.

The future

We are very concerned that there will be more cuts to the spending power of Darlington Council in the future. This will put at risk even more of our cultural services, assets and heritage. We believe that the time to act is now. Things have changed so fundamentally that the old models of the Council running everything no longer apply. Therefore what is needed is for the Council to work with the community, charities, social enterprises, businesses and other public sector organisations to ensure our town thrives as this century progresses. We acknowledge the Council is moving along these lines but a much more radical approach is now required. So we remain keen to work with the Council and others in a much more proactive way to help safeguard that which is important to the town - thinking about sustainability now, rather than when the next cuts have to be made.

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