News - Museums Sheffield gets £1.2m from arts council after cuts

Museums Sheffield has been awarded more than £1.2m of funding from Arts Council England nine months after it missed out on a £4.2m grant.


The money will fund the charitable trust, which runs many of the city's museums and galleries, until 2015.

It will be used to organise new exhibitions, improve its archaeology collections, galleries, cafes, shops and conference spaces.

Chief executive Kim Streets said it was an "important step" for the charity.

She said: "We want people to keep coming through our doors, keep visiting us and having a good time in our museums and galleries."

'Significant reduction'
Earlier this year, the charity had to reduce its staff by 38 after losing out on £1.4m of annual Arts Council funding.

Its £800,000 a year funding from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council also ended.

"We've been through quite a tumultuous year," said Ms Streets.

"The past few months have seen a significant reduction in our operations and while this new funding won't reverse those changes, it is an important part of our plan to deliver an excellent museum and gallery service which is financially sustainable."

The funding comes from Arts Council England's renaissance programme, which is also giving Barnsley Arts and Museums Service £52,500.

Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery is to receive £120,000 to make it more energy efficient, improve its shop and cafe area and display "high quality artworks".

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-19811119

News - Council set to discuss budget and £33m in cuts (Notts CC)

CITY councillors are meeting on Tuesday to discuss budget plans for 2011/12.

The council is proposing to cut £33 million, which would hit libraries, theatres, schools and museums.

Spending on the Theatre Royal and the Royal Concert Hall will be slashed by two thirds – but the Royal Centre would become an independent trust, allowing it to apply for grants.

The council has also revealed that Carlton Road library could close, in addition to the closures of St Ann's and Bulwell libraries announced previously.

Opening hours at Newstead Abbey, Brewhouse Yard Museum and Green's Windmill and Science Centre, in Sneinton, could be reduced.

The council is considering cutting the workforce by about 370 posts next year, saving more than £11 million.

Funding for capital projects such as roads, schools and housing has also been reduced or scrapped.

City council deputy leader Graham Chapman said: "We have been among the most successful councils in protecting jobs and frontline services but because of the scale of these cuts, there will inevitably be some significant impacts. We are approaching the Government about the damage another settlement like this next year would inflict." Proposals will be discussed by the executive board on Tuesday and ratified at full council on March 7.

From: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Council-set-discuss-budget-163-33m-cuts/article-3242880-detail/article.html

News - Lib Dems pledge Sheffield museums, libraries and pools will stay open

Libraries, leisure centres, swimming pools, museums, theatres and public toilets will not close under plans for £80 million of cuts at Sheffield Council in the next financial year.

The ruling Liberal Democrats have pledged they will keep weekly bin collections, continue to provide a free home insulation scheme and protect funding for Community Assemblies.

They say they will also protect the Safeguarding Children service and emergency adult social services care – which some councils have stopped providing and passed responsibility to ambulance services.

It comes as Manchester Council said it would axe 36 Sure Start nurseries, 20 youth centres, six public toilets, five libraries, two sports centres, two swimming pools, free parking and free advice services – and make 2,000 job losses during 2011/12 as it seeks to save £110m.

Sheffield Council is cutting 270 more jobs, after losing 461 jobs through a combination of voluntary redundancies and non-replacement of staff who have left or retired.

Lib Dem leader Coun Paul Scriven said: “The way that some local Labour politicians have been talking Sheffielders could be forgiven for fearing the worst. 

“But Liberal Democrats in Sheffield have rejected the kind of mass closures that have been announced by Labour councils like Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. We will be able to protect jobs, protect the vulnerable and continue to deliver the front line services that local people value the most.”

Coun Simon Clement-Jones, cabinet member for finance, said: “Instead of simply accepting library or leisure centre closures in a few areas, we are looking at slight reductions in opening hours. 

“Instead of ending services completely, we are looking to see how we can better target them. 

“We have also ruled certain things out, such as moving to a fortnightly bin collection or going to ‘critical needs only’ for adult social care.”

 

But the council yesterday agreed to close Howden House cashiers desks to save £250,000, despite protests from pensioners.

The council’s full budget plan will be published next week – when details will be revealed of what cuts are to be made. The budget is to be rubber-stamped at the cabinet meeting on February 23 – before being voted on at a meeting of full council on March 4.

A key element of the Lib Dems’ proposals involves saving £10 million through stopping incremental pay rises for staff – a saving which would have had to have been made from services or would have cost up to 300 more jobs. The party also proposes giving staff paid under £21,000 a year a £250 pay rise.

Labour, which could defeat the Lib Dems and have their own budget voted through if they secure support from the three minority party councillors, has not announced whether they will put forward their own budget proposals or back the Lib Dems’ increment freeze – something trade union supporters oppose.

Both Unison and GMB members have passed indicative votes proposing strike action over the Lib Dem plans. 

They are delaying calling a strike to assess the impact of the cuts on the education service – which has been exempt from the job cuts announced so far. 

Details of how the savings will affect education services will be revealed when the budget is published.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/lib_dems_pledge_sheffield_museums_libraries_and_pools_will_stay_open_1_3063153

Revamp caused museums debts (Museums Sheffield)

MUSEUMS Sheffield built up a £1.7 million debt with Sheffield Council by underestimating running costs at the revamped Weston Park building and due to changes in Government funding, its management revealed.

They also said the organisation received insufficient funding for its programme and was being hit by rising utility bills.

But chief executive Nick Dodd and chairman Sandra Newton said costs have now been slashed and the Trust expects to be in the black at the end of 2010/11.

The Trust faces further challenges, including phasing out in 2012 of a Government grant worth £600,000 annually, funding 28 workers who provide its education service.

But this could be compensated for with a bid to become one of nine groups of city museums recognised as being of national importance.

It could bring in up to £2m of extra each year and a bid is to be made in September.

Mr Dodd revealed the Trust found itself £650,000 over budget at Weston Park Museum in March 2008, six months after it was officially-reopened, after “anticipating lower figures”.

The £600,000 Government grant funding education workers was also switched to be paid retrospectively rather than for the year ahead in 2009, meaning a funding-gap for a year.

Mr Dodd said: “We had three choices - cut, raise more money ourselves or ask the council for more money.

“We did all three. We cut costs, shed staff, froze salaries and cut exhibitions, saving £500,000 a year.

“We have also made more money, including from extra sales in our shops, and secured external funding for a Sports Lab at Weston Park and £200,000 for revamping the Ruskin Gallery.

“We wanted to pay our debts, then the recession came and hikes in bills. Ms Newton added: “Changes affected us such as how Government altered the way it paid a grant to us from being in advance to being at the end of 2010/11.”

She said the rest of the debt came because the trust had not received sufficient funding to “allow us to deliver the service the city wants us to deliver”.

Museums Sheffield, which receives £3m a year, including £2.3m from Sheffield Council, is preparing to make a 15 per cent budget cut as council funding is reduced in 2011/12, making further job losses among its 121 staff “almost certain”.

“We are now in the black but only by a tiny amount,” Mr Dodd added.

A report to Sheffield Council’s audit committee on Monday says two reviews are being carried out into the Trust but Mr Dodd and Ms Newton said the reviews, and two others, have been completed - giving a “clean audit” and recognising the service had been under-funded.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/revamp_caused_museums_debts_1_2988360