Agenda item

Alistair Stewart, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, thanked the Chair for the opportunity to address the meeting and gave an update on the organisation and activities of the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation.

The Chair thanked Mr Stewart for his presentation.

Audio recording – 27 minutes 03 seconds

Mr Alistair Stewart, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, thanked the Chair for the opportunity to address the Committee and gave an update on the activities of his organisation as follows:

·                The cinema had re-opened and had been very popular. Sci-fi film week was being held between 25^th June to 8^th July 2021;

·                The farm was open on a ticket-only basis and had been popular;

·                Arts, culture and heritage were now being supported with a mixed funding model;

·                The gallery had been hosting ticket-only events;

·                The café area in the gallery was being developed as a community area;

·                An outreach programme was being developed to take art out into the community, this would start with family art sessions at the Jackmans estate;

·                A Youth Arts Forum had been set up for ages 16-23;

·                The museum had been taken out into the community;

·                Feedback had been received on the types of activities that people would like to see in the community and funding would be sought for these;

·                Work was being undertaken with other organisations on a town-wide approach to the Happy Project – four hours of activities per day, four days per week, in the holidays for children who received free school meals; there were places for 60-90 children per week;

·                In order to provide cooked meals, it was hoped that Herts Catering would be able to set up a base in Letchworth otherwise the meals will be a 30 minute drive away; the funding application was around £46,000;

·                Continued support for foodbanks with grants as there was still a clear need;

·                They were halfway through their community-based grants programme;

·                Grants had been awarded to Growing People (mental health support), TTL, MS Therapy Centre, Letchworth Swimming Club, Letchworth Corner Sports Club and Kings Community Church; the next grants committee meeting was at the end of July;

·                The need for financial management support and advice had been identified as a strategic priority and they were working with partners on this and gathering data;

·                Grant support continued for the Letchworth Family Support Team who worked to support children at risk of being excluded from school – there was a higher level of need in Letchworth than nearest neighbours Hitchin and Baldock;

·                The Foundation was moving away from grant funding to look at more long-term commissioning work to support key strategic aims;

·                Social action volunteering was being developed;

·                The Foundation was looking at audience development in the commercial sector (cinema, farm and gallery).

The following Members commented and asked questions:

·                Councillor Daniel Allen

Mr Stewart advised that:

·                Individual companies had been considered for the hot meals initiative, however the funding application had to fit with the government guidelines on healthy eating and school meals which was very prescriptive;

·                Spirella Ballroom was being ‘mothballed’ while the Foundation considered how best to utilise it, the difficulty being that the ballroom was on the top floor and Covid-19 restrictions strictly limited the use of the lift;

·                Should Members wish to know more about any of the elements of the update, they were welcome to email Mr Stewart.

The Chair thanked Mr Stewart for his presentation.