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Clare Maclean
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Monday 24 May 2010 6:21:56 pm
Usage of buildings (library services)
I think the council needs to look closely at the usage of public buildings before any permanent cuts are made. While there are many people who never use a library in the traditional there are those among that group who use "library services" such as Am Baile and Bookstart but without going to a library building. Perhaps the Council could look at pooling what funding there is and providing a number of different services under one roof. For example, libraries in the same building as a decent coffee shop with wifi internet access etc. I know that is an unpopular idea with some people, however, providing a nice space for people to sit, meet with others and relax is an important facility to many people. Having somewhere to relax gets people into the mood for browsing books and many people will come through the door who wouldn't normally use a library and perhaps discover that it is a resource they can use. Such a facility is also important to new mothers. Having somewhere they feel welcome to meet with other mums along with prams is a Godsend. And again, having somewhere welcoming to meet and relax will encourage browsing and reading for and to children. (There is a reason Borders was so popular). With a little imagination and joining of facilities I really believe that Council community services could be enhanced and usage increased and not lost. As many others have said, once a service or facility is cut it is very difficult to bring it back.
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tony Watson
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 9:28:59 am
Tain Forum Meeting
A very well attended meeting on Monday night in Tain, although there was a feeling that the event was dominated by one issue, namely that of the potential closure of the swimming pool - even a trio of angelic schoolboys singing an appeal directly to the top table!. Good luck to that group though since the pool users had really got their act together and left councillors and officials in no doubt as to their desire to retain that facility. Perhaps the lesson to be learned for the rest of us in other sectors, is that no matter how noble the cause, unless you shout loudly you may end up the poorer for your inaction?
It was a noble exercise in democracy for the Council to then have us all sitting round tables trying to provide answers for various topics without us having sufficient background information - I left feeling as if the captain of the Titanic had come up to me and said "we've got a bit of a problem, any ideas?"
So who decides what is important - the danger is that we all become single issue groups and forget that it's all the parts that make the whole. From cradle to grave these are issues that makes society better and to loose but one makes us all the poorer.
Tony Watson - Fearn
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Kate Maxwell
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 10:33:28 am
If cuts have to be made, then spread them
It seems that everyone understands that cuts, however unpalatable, need to be made. Nevertheless, to suggest that one area be sacrificed in order to save another does not seem to be a viable option.
The staff (both paid and voluntary) who run these essential services are passionate about their work, and the cultural service they offer. They already work exceedingly hard to maximise efficiency, but I don't believe that any of them would want their service retained at the expense of another. Therefore why not propose moderate cuts across the board? Perhaps even ask the services themselves to suggest how much they could afford to cut in order to maintain their service? Yes, this relies on goodwill and honesty, but it also leaves the budget restrictions in the hands of the those directly affected, rather than imposing them from above. In this way the specialist professionals can work together, rather than against each other in a competition for survival.
As others have said, once gone, services do not come back. Any closures will be both permanent and disastrous for the region, and thus should be avoided at all costs.
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Joanne Howdle
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 12:27:46 pm
CORE FUNDING FOR OUR INDEPENDENT MUSEUMS
I agree wholeheartedly with Jennifer Maxwell's comments. My own Museum Caithness Horizons opened to the public on 1st December 2008 and in its first year of operation attracted 80,000 visitors. It is free to enter. It cares for and makes accessible to the public the regionally important Museum Collections that were previously in the ownership of the Thurso Heritage Society at the Thurso Museum and the Caithness Collections of The Highland Council. It also houses a nationally important Collection that relates to the nuclear research facility at Dounreay. The quality and importance of our and the other independent Museums’ Collections is a major factor in attracting repeat and foreign visitors to the Highlands and encouraging them to extend their stay beyond the traditional high summer season.
It has been noted at national level how important cultural work is in relation to economic regeneration in Scottish localities and Caithness Horizons along with the other independent Museums in the Highland region are key to this activity. Caithness Horizons is a VisitScotland Five Star Visitor Attraction and along with the other independent Museums is a vital ingredient in the tourism product of the Highlands. All of the Museums are central to the regional tourist economy both directly, by creating employment and indirectly by attracting visitors who then become customers of other local businesses. Caithness Horizons directly employs twelve members of staff. It also provides contract work for local businesses, artists and craftspeople.
Caithness Horizons along with the other independent Museums runs a varied programme of lifelong learning activities, temporary exhibitions and special events that benefit both the local communities that the Museums serve and visitors to the area. The Museums also provide education services for local schools that support the curriculum and run a varied programme of activities that provide informal learning opportunities for children, families and adults. Caithness Horizons like many of the other independent Museums also delivers lifelong learning activities and projects aimed at people with special needs in partnership with local community groups.
Many of our Museums including my own contribute to tackling social inclusion by using their Collections as a basis on which to run outreach activities that improve physical and intellectual access to the heritage of the Highlands. Many of the Museums also run a wide range of family friendly events and develop and maintain links with schools and community organisations such as Brownies, local history groups and societies. At Caithness Horizons we provide space for groups such as the Caithness Family History Society and the Reminiscence Group to meet. This contributes to getting elderly people out of the house and providing them with exercise, mental stimulation and social interaction. It also enables them to meet people with similar interests.
Can anyone really say that any of independent Museums who contribute so much to the well-being of their local communities and attract visitors to the area really don't deserve the £14k a year that they receive from the Council? Surely more sensible savings can be made elsewhere rather than cutting funding to Museums? How about investing in better video conferencing facilities for meetings to save on the travel bills of Council Officers and Councillors for a start?
I sincerely hope that The Highland Council’s do not cut funding to Museums as this will have a detrimental effect on and may end in the closure of some of the regions fine Museums, which really would be a tragedy.
Joanne Howdle, Curator, Caithness Horizons
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Peter Wild
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 1:20:56 pm
Value for money with Independent Museums
Since Historylinks opened 10 years ago it has gone from a heritage collection to a Museums Libraries and Archives fully accredited, Visitscotland 5* museum.
In the last 12 months Historylinks has:
• Answered 206 enquiries relating to research and collections.
• Gained 284,116 web hits of which 81,103 were research enquiries.
• Received 6,557 visitors.
• Engaged 788 participants in outreach activities.
• Acquired over 300 constructive comments from the Image Library, which has a world wide following.
• Contributed to the year of Homecoming and ‘Their Past Your Future’
The Spring 2010 primary school project will involve four classroom activity visits and result in the production of a report for Inverness archaeology unit and the provision of images to Am Baile, concluding with an exhibition at Historylinks.
The next education project, scheduled for June, will provide five workshops (4 school and 1 public) and result in an exhibition in both the Cathedral and the museum.
The museum loans 3 resource boxes to schools and community groups.
The museum has an annual holiday project with ‘Allsorts’ after school club.
The museum has around 20 volunteers, including 8 trustees, who freely give up about 2000 hours of their time a year. There are 3 part time employees including an Education and Outreach Officer.
Historylinks has published two new books to add to its list of 8 books and a DVD, all researched by volunteers. Demand for in-house publications has led to further print runs to replenish stock for the 2010 season.
The museum is a principal tourist destination in Dornoch and is a recommended attraction by many accredited guides and coach companies. We are open every week of the year .
Given that there is equitable percentage budget reduction applied to all independent museums, our contingency plans for budget cuts are:
• To progressively reduce the amount of outreach work with the possible loss of 1 part time job.
• To reduce the opening hours, including all winter hours.
• To reduce the number of changing exhibitions and star projects
The identified risks arising from budget cuts are:
• Reduction and possible elimination of school and ‘Allsorts’ activities
• Detrimental effect on Dornoch’s tourism attractions.
• Diminished capabilities to finance ‘Star Projects’ e.g. book/DVD publication/ exhibitions impacting on future trading and annual VisitScotland 5 star review.
• Progressive reduction in ability to meet our Service Level Agreement obligations.
In conclusion, independent museums contribute huge educational and community benefits and provide fantastic value for money but they are dependent on volunteer effort, which must be coordinated and tempered by professional services largely financed by the core Highland Council annual grant.
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Peter Wild
Curator
Historylinks Museum
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Carol Hart
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 1:58:22 pm
Libraries and access to information
What I should also have pointed out is that about 3 years ago, NHS Highland sponsored a collection of mental health self-help books called Well Read, which were to be placed in every Highland Library. Well Read books are designed to help adults undergoing common mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, eating disorders, and recovery from sexual abuse. If libraries close the Council will be cutting off access to these vital resources. Libraries provide an important avenue for those who want to find out information - the whole issue of 'well-being' is very much in vogue, and by closing libraries the Council will cut off access to resources which help engender that sense of well-being.
Carol Hart
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Michele Cadger
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 5:41:02 pm
FUNDING CUTS TO INDEPENDENT MUSEUMS ARE JUST PLAIN BAD ECONOMICS
I agree wholeheartedly with the comments already expressed by Jennifer Maxwell and Sue Pirnie and would like to know if anyone in Highland Council has read the recent HLF report detailing the success of Heritage Tourism and the £20billion the industry contributes to the UK economy.
Over the last few years Highland Museums have been ‘invited’ to apply for Museums Accreditation, a gruelling one size fits all exercise whether one member of staff or over a hundred, to bring us all up to standards that satisfy the unrelenting beaurocracy imposed on the Museum sector. Did we receive any funding reward as a bonus for this achievement? No, (obviously not as clever as the Banks) instead we received a piece of paper and permission to continue to be eligible to apply for full levels of Grant funding should we have the time to apply for it.
In answer to the familiar question ‘could the Museum be run by volunteers?’ I quickly filled up an A4 sheet listing my activities solely by title and not in detail and the answer of course is yes, up to a point, it could be operated by our highly committed and very talented volunteers, but it would cost more money to run the Museum in this way and our opening hours would be seriously affected. Museums’ staff aren’t paid a fortune - we work long hours and very many of them are voluntary (in addition to our contracted hours). We are the very definition of multi-taskers and many of us have skills and experience that SAVE our museums money. If anyone was to ask me what one quality you should have to work single-handed in a Museum I would have to say now, a masochistic streak a mile wide. Why is it that we continue to be tortured in this manner?
We provide one of the most professional services of any sector of industry, by management, budget control and provision of service and yet we still continue to have this ludicrous battle for our core funding. Our own £14,500 revenue grant is further reduced in real terms (to £12,300) by immediately having to hand back £2,200 in Museums Insurance. Our core funding needs continuity not cutting. We all want to develop our activities to make us more sustainable but this takes time and a lot of hard work.
Our own site at Tarbat is about to be scheduled as a National Monument and many of our visitors consider our Museum to be a National Treasure - with our closure any interpretation of the site will amount to a small plaque stating ‘the Picts were here’!
14 years of archaeology to enlighten the Scottish people about the Dark Ages! Have we actually come out of them? Museum closures will shut down our cultural identity not just a service.
How can Highland Council continue to devalue something that is essentially priceless?
Michele Cadger – Tarbat Discovery Centre – Totally exasperated!
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Rian MacGregor
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 6:26:50 pm
Potential museum cutbacks
I must first say i completely agree with Jennifer Maxwell and Joanne Howdle's comments, with particular reference to the knock-on negative impact any closures would have on other buissness's, that rely on a strong tourist trade, something i feel is well supported with our local museums.
R.J MacGregor
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Norman Newton
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 6:48:04 pm
Libraries and Museums
As a recently retired librarian, I welcome the supportive comments from other bloggers. Many of them are heartfelt and reflect the importance of free public libraries to rural communities, and testify to the love and affection with which they and their staff are regarded.
As other bloggers have mentioned, I believe the council are asking the wrong questions in this ‘consultation’. The arithmetic approach, imposing a percentage cut across the board on all expenditure, is too crude. Several people have mentioned how amazing it is that an excellent library service could be provided to 17 small rural libraries for less than £200,000 – surely a bargain by any measure which should be celebrated by the council’s bean-counters, not obliterated. And where will the next £200,000 of ‘savings’ come from, next year? Press coverage across the Highlands has been unexpectedly supportive; local anger and outrage are very encouraging and are a welcome boost to the morale of hard-pressed library staff.
Some bloggers have mentioned the important work of the Library Support Unit in Inverness, which provides support services to the current network of 40 libraries and 8 mobile libraries. These are the people who enable the single-staffed library to provide excellent service. There is no way to cut that support further without affecting ‘front-line’ services. The Library Support Unit is an essential component of the excellence and innovation which Highland Libraries delivers. The case for maintaining the Bookstart programme has been made eloquently elsewhere.
The idea of a few shelves of books in locked cupboards in village halls as an alternative to current library provision is unworthy of further consideration and would be a retrograde step to a patronising pre-war image of Highland communities which has no place in the modern digital age.
One component of the proposed cuts which has not received a great deal of attention so far is the Am Baile history and culture website. No single locality will campaign for its survival when faced with the closure of local facilities, but collectively its loss will diminish Highland culture. It is easily the most successful project to emerge out of the shambles which masquerades as Highland Council culture policy and to contemplate ‘mothballing’ this site is short-sighted in the extreme and would be an act of unsurpassed cultural vandalism.
Proposals to cut or even withdraw financial support for independent museums in the Highlands are equally short-sighted and distressing. There seems to be no recognition of the economic value of these institutions, which are already running on a shoestring and depend on volunteers, especially in the summer season, when there are not too many options available for tourists on a rainy day. Again, the council are getting a bargain and they should look elsewhere for ‘savings’. My own favourite is Groam House Museum, but it is insidious to have to collude with the council’s strategy of ‘divide and rule’, pitting one small museum against another in what for many will be a battle for survival.
I am deeply suspicious of this ‘consultation’ process. It is far too complicated, especially for folk without their own computers or with little awareness of the digital processes and procedures involved. One colleague has already attended a ‘ward forum’ and reports that it took her three days thereafter for her anger and frustration to abate. Moreover, the idea of needing to book tickets to a public meeting is ridiculous, though it is some consolation that at least it shows that the council recognises the scale of public outrage.
Norman S. Newton
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Joe Coul
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 7:54:44 pm
Move the Council's Museums to the Independent Sector and examine all costs.
We are asked to comment on just three possibilities to retain:
Inverness Museum and Art Gallery
or
Highland Folk Museum,
or
Cease support for the independent sector.
Why are we not asked to comment on other ways to reduce costs - and there must be such ways?
For example, why not move the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery and the Highland Folk Museum into the independent sector? If 18 or so museums can be run with a Council contribution of less than £260k or thereabouts , surely it must be possible to run just two museums (ok, I know the Inverness Museum is a bit bigger) on less than £1.1M per year - the figures bear closer scrutiny and some lateral thinking?
It would be tough, the paid staff could be reduced and those left could recruit volunteers – as the independents do. They could seek funding from other sources, consider entrances fees, more commercial activity – just as the independents have to and they seem to survive and their communities take a pride in ‘their’ organisations.
The funding figures for the Council’s museums presumably includes the Council’s overheads such as human resources, accountancy, health and safety, legal services, pensions and may be other things – but may be not, such ‘subsidies’ can be easily hidden? Independents don’t have those costs and from what I have heard their rates of pay and staffing levels are lower than the Council’s (i.e. they are more efficient) and they don’t have the same overheads - it’s certainly not a level playing field, the independents seem to deliver more museum bangs for the Council’s bucks!
I strongly suggest that the Council should examine what a wholly independent sector (the 18 plus Inverness and Folk Museum) could deliver for £1.1M, we might be surprised!
Another thought, if the support for the current independent sector is withdrawn and their organisations go to the wall, what happens to their collections and their premises? I fear that might be a charge to the Council and since most of the museums seem to be in old, possibly listed buildings in prominent locations, expensive to repair and heat, they might not be suitable for anything else. Who too would pay the statutory (not enhanced) redundancy pay for the independents employed staff who would be laid off? And their unemployment benefits (income support, job seekers allowances – council tax benefit?), are we not in danger of the Council – and the public sector in general shooting itself in the foot here. We are told that costs do have to be reduced – but let’s be sensible.
My suggestions,
- Examine ALL the costs
- Move the Council’s museum and gallery provision in the Highlands into the independent sector with the Council becoming a consumer of services rather than the mix of being a consumer and a provider. I think we might end up with a solution that achieves both retention of facilities and protects some employment, it might even bring some pride to the residents of Inverness and Newtonmore/Kingussie by supporting ‘their’ museums – a face-saver all round.
Joe Coul
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M Gowans
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 9:14:19 pm
No choice to be made in this exercise
I have been contemplating for days what to say in response to the question of which of the stated options the council should consider. Many have already stated the case far better than I think I could: Jane Dewar, Cindie Reiter, Norman Newton, etc.
As a Chartered Librarian and a former Highland Council employee, including previously bearing responsibility for the Bookstart scheme in Highland, I know first hand just how important these services are to local communities. It seems to me that there is no way I can possibly justify the importance of these services to the bean-counters of the council who continually target these services year on year. There are simply no more 'efficiency savings' or 'waste' to be found as anything that could even remotely be considered as such went long ago. Make no mistake, what the council are contemplating this time around is nothing short of the 'cultural vandalism' that was described by another poster.
I can only make a case for the library service, including Bookstart and Am Baile as I have been part of the work done there, but the case is just as important for museums and community centres. All of these institutions with their associated services enrich our communities and our lives. Without them, communities die and the free expression of ideas in them does too. I believe that the council need to think very carefully before committing this act of cultural vandalism and look more closely at how the entire council is run. There are no doubt other places to look for savings, such as the salaries of those in the top jobs or those with consultancy contracts bleeding the council dry.
With the cuts that are coming across the UK, families will need somewhere to go that is free and allows them opportunities to enrich their lives. I believe that in the difficult times ahead, these services (libraries, museums, swimming pools, community centres, etc.) will be more important than ever as disposable income for leisure activities dwindles. I can only hope that this consultation will help the council to see reason and reconsider implementing such devastating cuts. For me, there really is no choice to be made as none of the options is even remotely palatable.
At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better.
- Barack Obama
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Lydia Popowich
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Tuesday 25 May 2010 10:37:00 pm
Cutbacks, Disability and Equality
As a disabled artist living and working in Caithness I feel that disabled people are already excluded from equal participation in community life due to the lack of access to public buildings. Any further cutbacks will imprison disabled people in their homes in a manner reminiscent of Victorian times. I understand difficult decisions have to be made but it must not be the marginalised and disadvantaged who have to make the sacrifices. Disabled people have valuable skills and experience to offer to the wider community but are often prevented from doing so, eg Wick Library and the Fergus Gallery are not wheelchair friendly, many school buildings and community halls have dreadful access and facilities. I'm restricted in my work as a community artist due to the lack of basic disabled access to most public buildings in the Highlands and have encountered shocking levels of discrimination amongst public employees. However, some of the museums on your list for possible budget cuts offer excellent facilities for disabled people and are positive examples of good practice, eg Caithness Horizons and Timespan. It is essential that these venues are not lost but developed and utilised in imaginative and flexible ways which will benefit everyone. Access and equality are not luxuries but necessities in a civilised world.
LyPop
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Bob Pegg
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Wednesday 26 May 2010 12:22:55 am
Cuts!
Sue Pirnie and others have put it so much better than I ever could. Some addenda...
Inverness without a Museum/gallery? Could it continue to call itself a city?
Close down the museums, and it's one less reason for visitors to visit.
Libraries, galleries and museums all provide work for local artists, who feed back their skills into the community. And young people go on to develop those skills, and sometimes make a living from them.
Libraries, galleries and museums are good things to have - they make for a civilised country - and The Highland Council should be looking at how to develop them, expand their influences, not shut them down.
We seem to be looking at such small sums of money, considering what's in the balance.
Yes, look at how existing premises can be multi-purposed.
I wouldn't want to be a councillor now, or any other time. But folks - the Highlands has so much to offer culturally, both to us who live here and to the visitors. Please don't shut up shop.
Bob Pegg
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