Wantage And Grove District Arts Guild Report on Wantage Civic Hall Questionnaire Introduction 1.The Wantage And Grove District Arts Guild (WAGArts) has been formed out of the Wantage Arts Centre Campaign (WACC). At a public Town Meeting on 26th October 2007, the WACC team learned that the chances of getting better facilities for local arts groups would be far greater if there is a central voice speaking up for the individual groups. The Guild has been set up to address this. Its aim is to represent the views of arts and crafts groups in the Wantage and Grove District and to enable these groups to share knowledge and experience that will help each group to thrive. 2.When news about the Vale of White Horse District Council's budget difficulties over its Civic Halls in Wantage and Abingdon broke in the Wantage & Grove Herald on 7th January 2009 (see http://www.heraldseries.co.uk/search/4025314.Call_for_civic_hall_takeover/) WAGArts found itself being asked for its opinion on what should be done. On the 9th January an article was posted on the WAGArts website (http://wagarts.org.uk) asking whether, as VWHDC representatives had suggested, the Civic Hall could be run by local volunteers – like a Village Hall. The same day an email was sent to the Group representatives asking for their views on this issue. We received a number of responses. 3.There were further discussions, some of which were reported in the local press (see http://www.heraldseries.co.uk/search/4115351.Fears_for_the_Civic_Hall/), which broadened the issue to include the viability of the Civic Hall as a whole.. It was clear that WAGArts should formally ask the local groups for their views on the Hall's future. Accordingly WAGArts published a further article on its website on 12th February asking for readers views and, as before, issued an email survey to Group representatives asking the following questions: (a)How important is Wantage Civic Hall to you or your group? For example as a: venue for your cultural group? local registrar of births, marriages and deaths? venue for public functions, such as for weddings or parties? venue for community groups, such as toddler, older age or fitness groups etc.? (b)How useful and flexible do you find Wantage Civic Hall? For example in terms of bookings, sound/light and stage facilities, other amenities such as the bar. (c)Can you record any instances when staff have been particularly helpful or otherwise to you or your group? A deadline for responses was set as Sunday 15 March. Responses were sought by email or in person at one of WAGArts' regular drop-in sessions in the Vale and Downland Museum on Saturdays 14th February and 14th March. 4.This report presents the responses that WAGArts received to both the original question on volunteer management and on viability. 5.A central issue that arose in the responses was the question of just what purpose or purposes Wantage Civic Hall was meant to serve for the local community. We have tried to summarise this issue in the section titled “Purpose”. 6.As well as answering our questions almost all of our respondees wanted to comment on the the facilities and services offered by the Wantage Civic Hall. We decided to summarise these comments and place them on record in the section “Civic Hall Facilities”. We are well aware that some of these points are disputed. We simply record what we have been told. It is hoped that by showing what the local groups say about the facilities we can set baselines for further development. We note that some points raised here have been raised before, in some cases, many times before. There is clearly a need to reach some closure about them classifying them as: (a) incorrect; (b) correct and can be remedied (with a timed and costed plan); (c) correct but cannot be remedied (with a reason). 7.We try to gather together suggestions for the potential development of Wantage Civic Hall in the section titled “Potential”. 8.Finally we summarise our Conclusions. Purpose 9.Almost all our respondees brought up the central question: What is the Civic Hall for? It does serve many purposes: (a) host to Civic events/ Public meetings; (b) location of Town Council Offices and the Registrar of births marriages and deaths; (c ) venue for public functions such as the Wantage Community Church, weddings and private parties; (d) venue for meetings/rehearsals of local groups engaged in many different activities in art, crafts and sport/keep fit; (e) venues for arts events such as concerts, plays, operas, musicals and art exhibitions. But which, if any, of these is seen as its key purpose? 10.Is it, for instance, expected to break-even (or make a profit) with respect to its running costs or is it part of a public service paid for from local taxes like the public parks? If so what is the basis for the cost calculation? That is, what parts are supposed to be self-supporting and/or profitable and how are overhead costs distributed between those and the “civic” ones that are funded from taxation? How is the annual budget set as between those and the civic ones? How is the future development or capital plan worked out to cover these two strands of purpose? 11.We were told that, about 5 years ago, there was a determined effort made by the then manager of the Wantage Civic Hall to set up a programme of events – concerts, plays and exhibitions – to bring more people into the Hall. A paid organiser was hired and she negotiated with several arts providers to take part in this year long programme of events. When the negotiations were well under way, and some events had taken place, bringing audiences into the Hall, she and the Manager were told to stop making the arrangements because “This is not what the Civic Hall is for”. Contracts for future events had to be broken at a cost to VWHDC. But who determined that this was an inappropriate course of action for Wantage Civic Hall? And why? 12.The people of Wantage and Grove and District look with envy at the establishment of the Cornerstone Centre in Didcot – and indeed many people from this area are active supporters of events in that Centre. Didcot also has a Civic Centre. Is that what allows SODC to permit the programme of professional and amateur events to be held in the Cornerstone? What is it that makes the operation of Cornerstone a possibility in Didcot when it would seem that similar developments in Wantage were stopped? 13.We have been told that the Vale of White Horse District Council entered into a legal undertaking to supply and support a Civic Hall for Wantage and district at the time of local government re-organisation which removed the Wantage Rural and Wantage Urban District Councils. Is it legally possible for VWHDC to devolve that responsibility onto the Wantage Town Council or any other body in this area? Do these legal obligations impose any constraints on the uses to which the Civic Hall can be put? Civic Hall Facilities Booking 14.The letting policy seems to be based on an extreme form of “first come first served” in an attempt to be absolutely even-handed with respect to each hirer. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence reported to us that this leads to loss of business for the Hall as well as frustration for the potential hirer. For example, if a Pilates class books the King Alfred Suite for a weekly one-hour slot 7pm to 8pm there is a good chance that the main hall is not used after that, in which case the income for an evening is £42.50, which wouldn’t even pay for the heating and caretaker. A scheduling policy that prevented such dead time would be likely to increase income dramatically. We have direct evidence of one user seeking to secure a half-day hire but being thwarted because a series of short duration regular events were scattered across the schedule in such a way that there were no half-day slots available. One way to attack this problem is to designate fixed parts of the week for “regular” hires with the aim of clustering together short period hires (1 hour duration) consolidating the time they use and leaving longer slots for one-off or less frequent events. 15.Theatre groups, in particular, report difficulties in finding periods in which they can set up their show, have final rehearsals and a series of performances spread over several days, maybe a full week. Such bookings have to be made over a year in advance (and they require a substantial deposit be paid far in advance of any revenue from the production). This is clearly difficult for many groups, if not impossible. 16.The Wantage Art Group meets monthly in the Civic Hall but has had difficulties in arranging to have exhibitions of their work on display over a reasonable period of time (say at least a week). 17.There do not seem to be any privileges extended to regular users e,g, discounts for frequent users, consultation with regulars before letting rival organisations hire space. The community discount has been stopped. There is no plan or consistent effort to keep regular users happy so that they go on supporting the Hall or recommending it to their friends. This is just bad management. Layout of rooms 18.The dance studio [Icknield Room] downstairs is directly below the stage of the main hall. At present the only internal access to the stage from downstairs is through the dance studio. It is clearly intended to be used as a dressing room for stage productions. But this means that the dance studio, with its specialised equipment, has to be reserved whenever the stage is in use. A simple corridor across one end of the dance studio would allow it to be used independently of stage use. Other rooms downstairs could be used for dressing or green room purposes. - School of Dance 19.The main hall [King Alfred Suite] can seat over 200 people and is too large for many of the smaller scale productions e.g. youth drama, which require more intimate surroundings. The Ridgeway Suite downstairs is not suitable because the ceiling is too low. It has been suggested that since the stage is modular it might be possible to reconfigure the space in the main hall to create a more intimate “theatre in the round” setting. It is not known whether this would be operationally feasible [see Booking above]. - Young Actors Workshop 20.When forced by the closure [of St Mary's School] to seek other accommodation for rehearsals Wantage Choral Society took the choir to try out various venues, including the Ridgeway Suite and the main hall [King Alfred Suite] of the Civic Hall. Neither of these were suitable, the Ridgeway Suite because it was too cramped for 90 plus singers, the main hall because the acoustic was not conducive to learning the notes in a group. - Wantage Choral Society Catering 21.“There is a coffee area but since the machine has been broken (at the time of speaking) there is no coffee for the general public. Hardly a welcome to the place! Some of the staff are more like prison warders in attitude. (I worked at Oxford Prison for 2 years as a music teacher).” - a regular user 22.VWHDC has signed a contract with caterers that leaves hirers with no choice when it comes to catering for their events. Many hirers will think twice before agreeing to such an inflexible deal. Equipment Sound 23.“The main hall [King Alfred Suite] is suitable for some performances but its acoustics defeat many groups: everyone agrees that sound makes it off the stage for no more than the width of a pit orchestra and then falls to the floor. While the sound reinforcement system, which I have heard demonstrated at [Challow Park], is fabulously expensive and creates almost half the overhead black box clutter, I haven’t found anyone who knows how to use it, and suspect that it can only be used successfully with closely miked sources. This is not economically possibly for more than four/seven sources if they move and therefore need radiomics (plays, operas, musicals, etc..) (4 UHF channels and 3 VHF channels if really pushed) and so it is unlikely to be used, and cannot compensate for the hall’s intrinsic acoustics. [...]. For many groups the hiring of enough radiomics for a production (so that the sound system could be used) would be prohibitively expensive.”.- Stagelights 24.“We use [the main hall] for our major concerts and in principle it is ideal. [...], the acoustic enhancement system is very effective. On the down side, it is expensive to hire (typically £500 for a major Saturday night concert with afternoon set-up and practice) and there are several niggling faults - for example, we can't rely that the mikes will work, and in addition the acoustic enhancement causes a buzz on the speakers - so we have resorted to hiring our own system.” - Wantage Silver Band 25.“... there are lots of extra charges such as lighting, sound etc., which are often included at more ‘Arts’ friendly places. Also there is a lack of professional expertise with aspects such as lighting, sound etc.” - Stageschool 26.“There is a sound limiter that is set to such a low threshold that the sound cuts out when I stand on the stage and clap my hands. This makes it unsuitable for young music groups.” - Sweatbox Lighting 27.“[In the main hall] there is a splendid 96 channel desk (it must have cost £10,000 or more when bought) but there are then 32 channels on the lighting bars over the audience, and 8 – yes 8 – over the stage (plus 4 channels for the flood lights at the back of the stage for lighting a cyclorama. This is in addition to general hall lighting. There are a few more sockets available under the stage. But no way for cabling from them to emerge above the stage apart from coming to the front of stage first. There are also sockets at the back of the auditorium, at the top of the side steps. These can be used for follow spots. In a ‘normal’ performance space, at least 50% of the available channels are over the stage – the Civic Hall has 20% of the overhead sockets, and just 8% of the lighting channels. In Old Mill Hall we have 50% over the audience and 50% over the stage.“ - Stagelights 28.“... [thought we might] solve the problem of the abysmal provision of circuits over the stage area by using LED lights (which only require ordinary mains power, not dimmer circuits). It turns out that the only place where they might be hung is occupied by an enormous air conditioning duct (about 2 feet square cross-section). Bizarre, considering the air conditioning doesn’t work...” - Stagelights 29.“Although the main hall does not have air conditioning, it has an air movement system with high power motors. When these kick in, the lighting system has a tendency to go haywire – random lights flicking on and off! So for a production one has the option of stale air + steady lighting or circulated air + flickering lighting. The caretakers are fully aware of this – they told me about it at the interval of the first night – so I assume it has been true for some years. (We opted for stale air and steady lighting for the rest of the Oliver! run!) It indicates faults in the mains power distribution system and/or the wiring of the lighting control system.” - Stagelights (also reported by Wantage Silver Band; they use the air blower during intervals only.) 30.“I found that the lighting bar closest to the stage is nearly unusable because it is set so high and so close to the proscenium arch that lights hit the proscenium arch, or only illuminate the front of the stage. I had to put a bar 3 foot lower on extension clamps for the light from that bar to get to the stage!” - Stagelights Potential There is a real need 31.Our consultations with groups have made it very clear that there is a strong desire in this community that Wantage Civic Hall be kept as a functional part of the community. A number of our respondees rely on the Hall for their activities, in two cases for their livelihood and in the case of the Community Church, because of long established practice (they have been meeting in the Civic Hall for 27 years continuously except when it was closed for refurbishment). However much people complain about the facilities it provides or does not provide, they are clear that some sort of public hall is a requirement. Volunteer management? 32.The question was raised as to whether the Civic Hall could be run on a volunteer (or semi-volunteer) basis, perhaps with support from Wantage Town Council, somewhat like a Village Hall. Several of our respondees have expressed doubts as to whether this is practicable. One, with direct experience of the management of the Vale and Downland Museum, which does rely on the services of some 90 volunteers as well as its paid staff, cautions: “I think that Wantage Civic Hall is too big to be run by volunteers. Something the size of Grove Village Hall is fine, but not a huge building. Having lots of rooms it would need to run simultaneous events. Now that would be fun and games for volunteers to referee. Working with the museum, as I have done on and off, makes me realise that working with the unpaid can be just awful. NB it works very well within our church, but I suspect that this community is a bit different from many.” 33.Another said: “I fear that what VWHDC is trying to do is to get a service on the cheap here. It feels like it could be brilliant, BUT there would have to be really clear contracts drawn up as to who was responsible for what – and what about the insurance etc. etc... I would love to see it work, but think that it could be fraught with all sorts of difficulties. I would be interested in knowing if there are any other buildings of that size that are run by the community. Of course I would not want to see the Civic Centre fall into disrepair etc., and there are some excellent facilities for all sorts of community groups. [...] a fantastic possibility, with the need for HUGE input from the community as a whole – with the recognition that there are several organisations currently fund raising to improve/provide premises – such as the Methodist Church and the Silver Band. Would the Civic Hall be a suitable place for the Silver Band? I doubt it very much because of the lack of sound proofing. Who would ACTUALLY use the premises – who would transfer to there?” 34.As can be seen, it is thought that volunteer management of the Civic Hall would be a huge, possibly impossible, challenge for the community. 35.We were offered the following insight into the running of the Old Mill Hall in Grove: “Old Mill Hall contains three rooms for hire (Main (Patrick Little) Hall, downstairs room (Dixon Suite) that can be divided by a thin concertina partition, and upstairs room (Mervyn Shaw room) that is largely occupied by committee tables). It also houses the Parish Clerk and his secretarial support (two extra rooms). Hirings are run day-to-day by a paid, part-time Hall Manager who is responsible to a Hall Management Committee. In addition to appointing the Hall Manager, the committee hires a Caretaker and a Cleaner and is responsible for the Contracts of Employment of all three. The Caretaker opens and closes the Hall outside office hours, but does not remain at the hall during events. Since the Parish Council was responsible for raising the money with which the Hall was built, it requires that 6 parish councillors be on the committee, with up to 4 non-councillors being co-optable as well, and that the chairman of the committee is a councillor. The committee is not responsible to the Parish Council, but the Chairman makes a report annually to the Parish Council.” 36.Thus the Old Mill Hall “... is neither run by volunteers, nor by the 'local' authority (in this case the Parish Council). As the only permanent residents in the hall, the Parish Council are responsible for much of the maintenance of the fabric of the hall, although the management committee annually sets aside money into a sinking fund to finance major projects that would improve the hire able resources (for instance, air movement equipment has been on the wish list for many years). As a whole, it has run at a small 'profit' (i.e. the sinking fund has slowly increased) for the last 20 years. Throughout its existence the Committee has always resisted any accounting pressure to make a 'return on investment' - as the hall cost £550,000, that would have generally meant that we would have had to double hire charges. The Committee has also successfully resisted paying business rates on the Hall. The Civic Hall, by comparison, appears to have a permanent on-site manager (and maybe an assistant) and two on-site caretakers, constituting to a mammoth salary bill. The Civic Hall also has a much larger floor space, so requires more cleaning. And VWHDC pays business rates on its Halls only part of which comes back to the Council from the national pool.” Catering and other regular services 37.While catering facilities are available in the Civic Hall, their usage is minimal because in one case (coffee area) they are broken and the other case (bar) this is only open, at considerable cost to the hirer, during events. Adding facilities that are open during the day would make Wantage and Grove start to believe that the Civic Hall was a real part of the community. This is one area that COULD be run by volunteers (Cf League of Friends in hospitals). Other halls allow external bars in, often at zero cost to the hirer (the bar owner takes the profit). 38.Other ideas seen at other multi-purpose centres - facilities such as a coffee shop (seen in many places) or the VWHDC Local Services Point - would mean that people were coming into the building throughout the day. So far as we are aware , the Civic Hall doesn't even sell tickets to events run there despite the fact that it has at least three people close to the front desk all day. Unique selling points 39.No one venue can accommodate all the potential uses community groups might want to put it to so we have to decide what the Wantage Civic Hall should focus/specialise in. In effect this means we have to decide what it is NOT for as well as what it can do. 40.This discussion should be taken in the context of planning for other community facilities in the district e.g. the “Community Centre” being discussed for Phase 1 of the Grove Airfield development, if and when that gets going again. It would make more sense for each of these venues to complement each other with respect to facilities than for both to try to be all-purpose and not good enough for any one. We recognise that planning law may get in the way of letting VWHDC dictate what Persimmon, the developer, would be required to build in Grove since Clause 106 monies (planning gain) have to be spent for the direct benefit of those occupying the houses that are built in the development. 41.We suggest that by thinking out the facilities that Wantage Civic Hall should focus on will enable VWHDC to identify the unique selling points of that Hall and so enable it to develop a viable plan for its future. Conclusions 42.The Wantage Civic Hall is important to the local community. Many groups would be made 'homeless' for productions/services/classes if the Civic Hall was closed down. 43.It appears that VWHDC do not have a clear idea of what facilities the Civic Hall should provide (or avoid providing). 44.There are grounds for believing that a better bookings policy could substantially increase usage of the Civic Hall, and hence its income. 45.There are many areas (air conditioning, performance of the sound enhancement system, stage lighting) where small or medium scale improvements, which should have been part of the last refurbishment but were scrapped, would increase the attractiveness of the Civic Hall to hirers, thereby increasing income. 46.It would appear that, by comparison with other local halls, the Civic Hall uses a luxurious level of management and caretaking and this contributes significantly to the annual deficit. 47.While catering facilities are available in the Civic Hall, their usage is minimal. Much more use could be of these services and this is an area in which volunteers could contribute. 48.There are schemes for running facilities like the Civic Hall, ranging from full VWHDC control through to fully run by volunteers, with many stages in between. These should be explored, by a joint working party (WAGArts + VWHDC at least) before any irrevocable decisions are taken. April 2009 Compilation ©2009 Wantage And Grove District Arts Guild http://wagarts.org.uk For further information please email info@wagarts.org.uk