One of several hats I wear is that of volunteer area lead for the Federation of Small Businesses. In that capacity I’ve just written the piece that follows about the role of culture and the high street.
Here it is in the Western Daily Press – below is what the article says in case you can’t read it on the image.
Up in arms
Many Swindonians are up in arms right now. The reason? Swindon Borough Council’s decision not to reopen Swindon’s museum and art gallery when Covid restrictions lifted. That’s a long and bitter story not for telling here. Suffice it to say, this decision is mystifying in so many ways. Not least of which is that it’s so at odds with the current message from both government and arts organisations. That message being that people want museums and cultural activities on their high streets more than they want pubs.
Indeed, back in August, the Museums Association wrote that very thingstating that 70% of people believe that cultural spaces make their local area a better place to be. Quoting a report from Arts Council England,A High Street Renaissance, they state that, alongside shops, when asked what they’d like to see more of on their high street, people most often answered: ‘culture’.
BOP Consulting conducted research earlier this summer, to examine public attitudes to culture and its role in regenerating crisis-hit-post-pandemic high streets. They found that culture had ridden the pandemic storm better than the retail sector. The latter saw over 17,500 chain store outlets close in 2020. And in-store sales were 25% below pre-crisis levels in August 2020.
Culture on our high streets
In September 2021, the Arts Council published Culture on Our High Streets. In that, they highlight two new reports into the benefit of culture for our high streets, showing ‘how important these spaces will be in reanimating local economies as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.’
Via the article, Dr Darren Henley, CE of Arts Council England said: ‘An investment in culture is an investment in our high streets. Theatres, music venues, museums and libraries are the beating hearts of their communities. They’re central to the social fabric and civic pride of towns across England. As well as events and performances for audiences of all ages, they provide a raft of local amenities from bars to bookshops. All of which helps to bring our high streets alive, providing jobs and boosting the economy.’
Cultural spaces then, along with coffee shops it seems, have real potential to pull people back to the high street for physical, in-person activities. Museums, libraries etc transform our high streets into much more than mere transactional spaces.
Returning to the High Street Renaissance article, we find the only-transactional high street is at greater risk from the online shopping threat. Where closures occur, a downward spiral ensues. One that reduces footfall and in turn reduces the remaining outlets’ visibility. But the experiential high street, i.e. places offering enjoyable experiences, is more likely to resist the online threat.
An important message that Swindon Borough Council appears to have missed. I trust the rest of Wiltshire is faring better in this respect.
PPS: it’s not only about the high street – it’s also about the general appearance and feel of an area.
Apsley House already has broken windows and is looking dilapidated – steadily that will drag the area down. SBC have not the wit to realise this. Or if they do – they don’t care!
Swindon has racked up 319, 874.5 miles as part of its Beat the Street campaign!
Swindon racks up the Beat the Street Miles The town has once again completed the Beat the Street challenge!
The town’s third Beat the Street game finished at 7pm on 27th October. It saw almost 30,000 people walking, cycling and rolling for points and prizes during the six-week challenge. Together, the town clocked up an active travel mileage of 319,874.5 miles.
The miles have been tallied, the points calculated and the winners announced. Aand this year, players have exceeded the town’s record mileage of 313,000 miles set in 2018.
Topping the leaderboard
Haydonleigh Primary School topped the total points leaderboard. Meanwhile Futile Footsteps came top of the average points leaderboard.
Debbie Yockney from Haydonleigh Primary School, who topped the school’s total leaderboard for the north west part of the town, said: ‘Haydonleigh children, parents and staff and our ‘Black cat’ mascot have again been utterly hooked on Beat the Street. We’ve enjoyed collecting points. Whether it’s joining in with an evening group walk, on their way to and from school or out walking the dog.’
Cailey Whitcher, Secretary of the Swindon Down’s Syndrome Group said: ‘Quite a few of us took part in Beat the Street in 2018. So it was an obvious decision to set up a team this time around.
‘We’re always keen to encourage our members to stay active. Many take part in our regular activities which include football, tennis, swimming and cricket. Thus , schemes such as Beat the Street are a great way to get and remain active. Even while going about normal daily activities like walking the dog or going to school. It’s great fun and it’s inclusive so everyone can be involved.
‘We love the fact that players in Swindon can choose to be part of our team. We’d like to thank everyone who joined the Swindon Down’s Syndrome Group team for their support in helping to raise further awareness of the amazing things that our members continue to achieve.
Councillor Brian Ford, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults and Health, said: ‘It’s once again been a great experience to see Beat the Street taking place across Swindon and we’d like to thank everyone who took part.
‘We’ve heard from people who have got fitter, spent more quality time together as a family and have got to know the area by foot. We’ve heard lovely anecdotes about people who’ve visited every Beat Box. And stories about conversations struck up and people trying out new activities and getting into healthy habits.
‘Congratulations to every player involved with Beat the Street. We hope that people will continue to walk or cycle to get around our town and will continue to enjoy being active.’
For more information on the small lifestyle changes that individuals and organisations can make to reduce their carbon footprint, click onto www.swindon.gov.uk/bethechange
Save our Museum and Art Gallery (SoMAG) says the council has turned down opportunities to bid for museums funding as recently as this year. This despite claiming that the Grade II listed Apsley House is in dire need of substantial repairs and renovations.
Earlier this year, SoMAG learned that the council declined to put in an expression of interest to the national Museum Estates and Development (MEND) fund. It was inviting grant applications from museums ranging from £50,000 to £5m. These grants are non-repayable, so no debt would have incurred.
SoMAG said
‘The MEND fund is a literal gift to any cash-strapped council. Thus it stunned us when we learned that Swindon Borough Council decided not to apply for funding for Apsley House. An officer told us that, despite MEND’s being a ‘good fund’, the time wasn’t right for Swindon.
That’s an opportunity lost now. But, as luck would have it, it looks as if the council may have a second chance. £850m is being allocated to ‘breathe life’ back into museums around the country.
The council’s current plan is to patch up Apsley House. Then sell it off to the highest bidder and keep the cash for the unknown number of years it will take for the building of the planned cultural quarter in the centre of town. It seems that cash will play a crucial part in financing any new museum and art pavilion. You don’t have to be an accountant to see that, with inflation running at around four per cent, and interest rates at an all-time low, that sum will diminish in real value over a decade or two.
‘The Chancellor says over 100 regional museums and libraries will undergo renovation and restoration. We implore SBC to bid for a share of the £850m, to make sure that Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is one of those 100+ museums. And further to start putting in applications for the other funding streams that often come available. Then SBC can ‘breathe life’ into Apsley House, instead of flogging it off to heaven knows who.
Aspley House home of Swindon museum and art gallery – Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Closure
An offer from South Swindon Parish Council
South Swindon Parish Councilhas approached the council with an offer to take over running the museum and art gallery at Apsley House. And to act as its guardian until the coming of the cultural quarter. Thus the council can be free from having to look after it.
Once the new museum and art pavilion get built, the parish council will hand Apsley House back to SBC. They can then sell it should they still wish. Given the historic trend for property to increase over the long term, that’s going to be far more lucrative for Swindon’s tax payers than getting rid of it now.
To be blunt: this is a choice between keeping our fantastic art collection and museum artefacts in one venue until they have a permanent new home. Or putting a treasured Swindon building into private hands and risking it joins the ranks of the Corn Exchange, Mechanics’ Institute and Oasis.
We hope that Swindon Borough Council does the right thing by the people of Swindon.
Delivering positive community news over four decades by Roger Ogle, founding publisher and editor of Swindon Link magazine
Four Decades of Swindon Link Magazine For a free magazine to survive for forty years is rather an incredible achievement.
It all started in December 1978. An 18 page un-named newsletter appeared through the doors of the 500 houses occupied in Toothill and about 50 in Freshbrook. Resident Geoff Richmond had put it together. He then distributed the publication door-to-door with his wife Kathy. She pushed a pram with their baby daughter on top and the loaded tray below.
Meanwhile, I started work for Thamesdown Borough Council at the beginning of 1979 as the Community Development Officer for the ‘western development’. So I involved myself in coordinating the production of the second and subsequent editions.
A competition in the first newsletter asked for a masthead and the second edition, in early 1979, bore the title Toothill Link. The place name was soon dropped as distribution grew to include the other distinct urban villages built across the west, such as Westlea, Shaw and Roughmoor.
A fast expanding community
In a fast-expanding community, communication is essential so that people know what’s going on around them and encouraged to get involved. For eight years The Link appeared every 8 weeks, produced by a small group of volunteers coordinated by myself. This was the pre-computer era when e-mail was still science fiction to the majority of people. We typed stories on paper then cut and pasted onto layout boards with the help of a ruler. We made headlines with Letraset stick-on lettering. Photographs were a rarity. For the first few editions volunteers hand stapled the pagees together before distribution by more volunteers. It was all very primitive and the appearance crude by today’s standards.
But The Link soon became a point of reference for West Swindon. It promoted the area with a distinct identity, to get away from the idea of the ‘western expansion’ as it was first known. The newsletter never missed the opportunity to remind readers that in 1984 Link Centre took its name from the newsletter.
By late 1986 it was clear that publishing only eight editions a year was inadequate. Further, that volunteer distribution to more than 8,000 homes was not sustainable. Another 3,000 homes were planned to the west of the town and plans for expansion to the north were taking shape.
With little business sense and no formal journalism experience I, with support from my wife Ruth, took the fateful and risky decision to leave a secure job at the then Thamesdown Borough Council. The aim being to publish The Link as a monthly from April 1987 with the original objectives:
It be available free of charge to every home in its target area
To provide local news and information about schools, churches, charities and community activities across the town
Be a place to promote opportunities to get involved and help groups and charities
Celebrate the efforts of people to build their communities, as well as making connections with those in other countries.
Advertising was always crucial. Apart from small grants to fund the first two newsletters, every publication since March 1979 paid for itself. I called it a virtuous circle: being a vehicle for business promotion alongside news and information trusted by readers. They in turn responded to the advertising which sustained the publication.
Without doubt hundreds of small businesses were assisted in establishing themselves because of this reader support. It was a great responsibility to help the entrepreneurs who only advertised in the magazine to attract customers.
In 1994, with commercial possibilities in mind, we expanded into Haydon Wick ready for the first houses of the town’s northern expansion at Abbey Meads. By 2014, the print run had more than tripled to 27,000 a month.
The free delivery model
I admit to being ever surprised that the free delivery model continued to be successful for so long. Yet I was aware that The Link would only be attractive if we sustained the quality of the product.
Over the years, people started rival publications seeing it as an easy way to make money. But they didn’t understand the unique features of The Link. Nor the sheer hard work required to create an appealing product month after month. In all the years it’s been going, I’ve not come across another local publication with such a high level of editorial content being delivered in such large numbers free of charge.
New technology and the world wide web
More by luck than judgement The Link came into being at a time when new technology and major changes in publishing made it easier to produce a local magazine. We were one of the early adopters of desktop. Then we published on Apple computers in 1988 to allow in-house control of production – the first in Swindon to do so. We were also the first to utilise the flexibility provided by digital cameras. By a couple of weeks, swindonlink.comwas the second business in Swindon, in October 1997, to launch a town wide website. As they came along we were also quick to get involved with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
In 2014, with retirement in mind, we were very pleased that Swindon businessman James Phipps recognised the importance of The Link to the town. He bought it and oversaw the launch of further editions covering Old Town and south and east Swindon. Jamie Hill, editor since 2015, later took over the business.
It’s my belief that The Link always punched above its weight. Its success built on a high level of relevant editorial. Along with strong visual content, a passion for the community it serves, accuracy, absence of sensationalism and bit of wit for good measure.
A SoMAG response to SBC’s leader’s response to a question
SoMAG responds to SBC’s leader NB: I’ve edited the following only for the purposes of SEO &YOAST
Dr Barbara Swan sits on the committee of the Friends of the Museum and Art Gallery. At SBC’s cabinet meeting on 13th Oct 2021 she asked this question of the Leader:
( a title I can’t hear without thinking of Daleks …)
‘Can the council explain the financial logic of selling off a substantial piece of property in a prime location [Apsley House], at a time when interest rates on cash deposits are very low, to part- fund a project that has no starting date as yet?
Property is the one asset that increases substantially in value. So what’s the financial argument for selling the building now? Surely it makes far better sense to make the necessary repairs (which we understand you’re making in order to make it saleable) and hang on to it so the council can get maximum benefit from its future appreciation in value?’
The Leader of the council responded thus:
‘Thank you for your question.
As we explained at the previous meetings of Cabinet and Scrutiny, we need to sel Apsley House to contribute to a new permanent facility in the Town Centre. The sale of Apsley House will make a small contribution to the cultural quarter as a whole. But a potentially significant contribution to an Art Pavilion in the Cultural Quarter or a relocated museum elsewhere.
We need to move quickly with the sale of Apsley House. That will enable us to deliver a solution that will minimise the time that the collections spend in a temporary location. The costs of repairing Apsley House are significant. And the problems of disabled access into the majority of the building were detailed at the previous Cabinet and Scrutiny meetings. The Council cannot make Apsley House DDA compliant. And we cannot continue to permanently operate a facility in a building that does not enable access for all.
Of course, not all improvements costed for Apsley need doing prior to any sale. Indeed a number could prove abortive depending on the end use of the building.
There is no guarantee that the value of the building would increase if it were retained. Buildings deteriorate quite quickly when they’re empty. Especially so in this instance as the building is listed, so there are holding costs for maintenance and for security. In the circumstances, there is nothing to justify the Council retaining ownership of the building.’
Aspley House home of Swindon museum and art gallery – Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Closure
SoMAG’s response
A spokesperson for Save Our Museum and Art Gallery (SoMAG) said:
To be very clear, SoMAG is in full support of the concept of establishing a cultural quarter. One that includes a museum and art gallery, in Swindon’s town centre.
Indeed, many of our 5,000 plus supporters, from all areas of the borough, worked to support the 2017 Heritage Lottery Fund bid for a new museum and art gallery in that very area. That demonstrates our passion for a central cultural quarter.
Yet SBC’s response to Dr Swann’s question is alarming for several reasons
In 2017, as part of the bid for HLF funding for a central museum and art gallery, the Council committed to retaining Apsley House as a community asset. The Council has come under fire over the years for failing to safeguard buildings it doesn’t actually own and thus has little control over. The Mechanics’ Institute and the Corn Exchange being two examples.
But the Council does own Apsley House. It can control that building’s future, at least until realisation of its vision for the town centre.
It’s worth remembering that, in 2017, SBC requested the Parish Council take on Apsley house for community use in the event of success with the Heritage Lottery Fund bid. Indeed, South Swindon Parish Council did register an expression of interest in 2017.
SBC state the sale of Apsley House has the potential to make a significant contribution to an art pavilion in the cultural quarter or a relocated museum. In which case isn’t it crucial that SBC does all it can to maximise the real value of the sale?
A disingenuous assertion?
They assert ‘there is no guarantee that the value of the building would increase were it retained. That is either very naïve or disingenuous.
‘There’s no guarantee about almost anything in life. But history shows that well-maintained property very much tends to increase in value. We’re not proposing that Apsley House remain empty, to deteriorate. Rather we’re urging SBC to take South Swindon Parish Council up on its offer to take on a lease and running it.
That way, the Council can sell Apsley House for a far larger sum when everything is in place to start on the art pavilion in the cultural quarter.
3. If Swindon Borough Council sells Apsley House now, the money will sit in an account earning very little interest. Meanwhile the cost of a potential art pavilion is almost certain to rise as inflation bites and construction costs rise.
Light years away
By the Council’s own admission, the cultural quarter is years away from happening. And, by the time it does, the contribution from the sale will make will be a drop in the ocean.
Referring to Apsley House, SBC also says: ‘it can’t continue to operate, on a permanent basis, a facility in a building that “doesn’t enable access for all”. But as things stand now, there is access for no-one.
The final words from SBC, that ‘there is nothing to justify the Council retaining ownership of the building’ are both shocking and sad.
2017
In 2017, as part of the bid for HLF funding for a central museum and art gallery, the Council committed to retaining Apsley House as an asset for the community. The Council has come under fire over the years for failing to safeguard buildings which it doesn’t actually own, and thus has little control over. The Mechanics’ Institute and the Corn Exchange being two examples.
But the Council does own Apsley House. It can control that building’s future, at least until realisation of its vision for the town centre.
It’s worth remembering that, in 2017, SBC requested the Parish Council take on Apsley house for community use in the event of success with the Heritage Lottery Fund bid for a new museum and art gallery. Indeed, South Swindon Parish Council did register an expression of interest in 2017.
A beseechment to SBC
Let the parish council take a lease on it and run it in the meantime. That rather than sell it to a speculative developer and risk it going the same way as those other historically significant buildings.
