Do as I say, not as I do

The row about budget cuts at Swindon Museum & Art Gallery is insightful to civic assets that are deemed more important than others, depending on where they are.

The quote from Councillor Heenan is even more interesting :

"The unvarnished reality is that the current Museum and Art Gallery brings in no income of note, has extremely low footfall and is subsidised by taxpayers to the tune of £200,000 per year and Labour councillors are happy to see this continue."

Substitute the asset name 'Liden Library' and the different amount of subsidy pre-Henan takeover and you have the perfect example of what is deemed important to councillors now we all live in a parished world.

The Conservative Borough council (along with Labour councillors) was more than happy to heap praise upon the Museum when councillors had the scent of lottery money in their nostrils. As that has fallen by the wayside, we're all expected to forget the very recent past and rally behind the budget cuts in an alternate reality.

With the current councillors in charge, don't forget, the council (under the influence and whims of ruling councillors) functions primarily just as an accounting exercise.

Do as I say, not as I do (apart from if it's in your own parish).

Culture Deserts

Swindon's new museum and art gallery is now dead in the water.

The action of one petition (which was misguided at it's very basic level, just poking at one hole as an example, they never once said where the money would come from to purchase the London Street carriagework buildings from Network Rail) has caused the main financial backer to leave.

Robert Hiscox takes with him his project man, his connections and most importantly of all, his money. The reason, the perceived negative reception locally to the Wyvern car park site, as opposed to the London Street site.

While the petition received coverage, at 700 signatories, it really didn't amount to much, simply the usual Mechanics Trust/Civic Voice loud shouting and easy Adver headlines but with scant detail at all behind it. The rest of Swindon, population 209,156, didn't really have their voices heard. There was no groundswell of opinion either way for or against the project, or strong views on the proposed site. This shows a lack of basic lack of public engagement on the part of the museum, Swindon Borough Council, the museum trust and most notably, Robert Hiscox himself. You can line up as many big name backers as you like, but if you've not spoken to the people who are to have the place on their doorstep, then you really are approaching it arse-backwards. Mr Hiscox's comments when interviewed about being able to get good quality coffee in Swindon struck a strange and patronising tone.

The big money donation has gone, as has the influence, the very highly-qualified Mr Van Dekker and the momentum. SBC were very lucky that the energy needed to push the project was being provided by Robert Hiscox and the trust, this will not transfer to SBC. The council have no money any more and no staff to spend time pushing this project.

This best hope is that another influential individual or group fills the shoes, but that's a big ask.

If the vacuum is filled by the Mechanics' Trust, who still seem to operate under the misapprehension they represent the will of all Swindon people (those people being about 7 individuals and probably a dog), then I look forward to seeing them try to buy enough scratchcards to raise the money.

Congratulations to the petition-raiser, the 700 people who signed it and the Mechanics' Trust, Swindon now has no chance of a museum and art gallery for at least a decade. The project may not have been perfect, but it was the only one there was.

Swindon Centric hopes you're proud of yourselves. 

The Mechanics of Trust

If the Mechanics' Trust got a pound for every column inch of coverage of their cause then the building in question would be gold-plated by now.

The latest grand plan from them deems that they want to take over the entirety of the Railway Village. The trust also want £15 - £20 million of Heritage Lottery Fund money to cover the cost of repairing the Mechanics', but they fail to see the wood for the trees.

There's no way the HLF will give two bids of money of such quantities to Swindon for two projects, the Mechanics' and the new museum and art gallery (regardless of whether it will be on the Wyvern car park site or if they get drunk and decide to go with the London Street carriage works site that the Mechanics' Trust are so certain on).

Swindon Borough Council and Forward Swindon already have a plan for the carriage works site, plus Forward Swindon have their own feasibility study into the Mechanics'. The latter was missed out of the Adver piece.

The track record of the Trust is patchy at a very generous best :

- Bakers Arms. Given to the Trust after closing in 2012. Still closed.

- Central Community Centre. Given to the Trust from SBC. According to news provided by an independent source (that independent source being, erm, the Mechanics' Trust), it's being run well.

- The Old Railway Cottage. Given to the Trust from SBC. Opened a handful of times, but no prospect of opening regularly.

- An allotment plot. Given to the Trust (along with the purchase of new tools). Has been overgrown ever since.

- A People's Lottery-funded development officer who left part way through his tenure due to creative differences.

On top of this, the Trust want to be given :

The Health Hydro.

The old Railway Museum.

The Cricketers Pub.

Plus they want £50,000 to put together a business plan for their plan for the Mechanics' building.

Do we trust the Trust?

An Artistic Interpretation Subsidy Versus Investment

The confident words of Robert Hiscox in his The Big Interview in the Adver in the hopes for a new museum and art gallery for Swindon will be a shot in the arm for the project which seems to have gone quiet since missing out on Heritage Lottery Fund money last year.

Hadrian Ellory-van Dekker has been appointed as the Director of the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Trust (which appears to be a first-class appointment) but details of what happens next are very quiet.

What is very 'now' is the mention of support for the museum and art gallery project as 'investment', whereas the support Swindon Borough Council gives to country parks and libraries is seen as 'subsidy'.

Will the wording of such change before a spade is put in the ground, and how does SBC square the circle of giving with one hand, but taking away funding for transporting disabled folk about, libraries, Lydiard and much more to residents and taxpayers on the other?

Less is more in the great Lydiard sell-off

The latest twist in the tale of the fate of Lydiard House and Park has seen Swindon Borough Council caught out by their own figures.

£450,000 is the annual subsidy that's been given recently that is spent on Lydiard. It has since come to light that Lydiard and Steam's subsidy crosses over with regard to some of the staff, so the figure is not correct. The error appeared so glaring that even Councillor Garry Perkins has asked for clarification as to what makes up the £450,000 from the Lydiard and Steam parts of the pot.

And just yesterday, SBC Council Leader, David Renard has said Lydiard is not for sale.

But you can bet at the very long-term lease least that will result will be a lease. Swindon's recent experience of leases has seen control of what's provided at the Link Centre lost due to the operator running it being under no restrictions on what facilities they have to provide.

Could a similar situation at Lydiard see residents lose free access to the Park?

Meanwhile, it'd be interesting to find out how much Steam is subsidised and the cost of the failed bid for lottery money for the Old Town museum (which it seems, if a future bid were successful, SBC would continue to subsidise the museum, which no doubt would increase due to being in a new and bigger premises).

On the one hand, we have SBC committing to continuing subsidy for the museum and art gallery and to it at new premises (which would no doubt be an increased size of subsidy), but wanting to reduce and eliminate the subsidy for a current highly-regarded public attraction.

Cutting subsidy to what we currently have and at the same time committing subsidy to something we may never get.

That's orange-painted logic for Swindon.