Agenda and minutes

County Councillors D. Blakebrough and R. Roden.

None.

Context:

To seek comments and consideration regarding the attached Abergavenny Castle Feasibility Study

Key Issues:

In 2015 Amion Consulting carried out a review of the Museum Service which acknowledged Monmouthshire as a county steeped in culture with significant tourist appeal. Findings from the review were used to inform the Five Year Forward Plan which was approved by Cabinet in December 2016.

Further to the approval of the Forward Plan it was agreed that individual business cases from the plan would be bought forward for scrutiny as appropriate. One of the proposed business cases included reference to the currently underused open spaces of Abergavenny Castle and consideration of a permanent outdoor structure in which an annual programme of events could be developed in order to generate additional income to improve the economic sustainability of the service and to increase partnership working with local communities and businesses.

Sarah Browne Architect was appointed in July 2017 to prepare designs for the Outdoor Events Pavilion. The intention is to submit a planning application in late October/early November alongside a Heritage Impact Assessment, a Noise Impact Assessment and an Archaeological Report.

3.4 The Abergavenny Castle site is leased from the Nevill Estate, an agreement which has been in place since the nineteenth century. The current lease expires in August 2020 so should the proposal be approved, then it will be necessary to renegotiate terms prior to commitments being made. The Nevill Estate have been made fully aware of the proposals as detailed and are fully supportive of the current partnership moving forward.

Member Scrutiny

It was pointed out that financial generation projections are missing from the report and a Member asked if there were plans for the project to generate an income. In answer we were told that due to the information being commercially sensitive, it has been omitted at this stage, however by the end of year 5 it was projected that a small profit would be made.

A Member queried the request for a 32K loan from the authority, with the particular service currently standing at 300K in deficit. The Member commented that due to the current financial climate he would expect new initiatives to have income generation potential to reduce deficits.

Reservation were raised by a Member who felt unable to back the scheme as it was felt it had not been thought out correctly and although it was nice  project, there are more worthwhile projects in the County that would make more impact.

It was asked if how many events would not take place without the structure in place and we were told that events would still take place but without the shelter, bad weather could limit the amount of people willing to attend.

A Member spoke of the intangible quality of Monmouthshire’s surrounding and felt that this project would add value to the local community rather than tourism.

The lack of a repayment schedule for the 32K loan was questioned and a Member had doubts that it would be repaid  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.