Agenda item

REPORT OF THE CULTURE AND FACILITIES SERVICE MANAGER AND PRINCIPAL ESTATES SURVEYOR

This report explores the current options with regards to solving or alleviating the storage pressures facing the museum collection of North Hertfordshire.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

(1)   That Cabinet note the current projected costs, advantages and disadvantages of each option.

(2)   That Cabinet approve use of £30k of the allocated £4m budget in the current capital programme for this project to develop more detail on the costs of Option D (warehouse proposal) and to acquire the necessary details for a planning application to be made.

(3)   That Cabinet approve use of £20k of the allocated £4m budget in the current capital programme for this project to develop more detail on the costs of Option E (Purchase of a freehold/long leasehold building (new or existing)), should a suitable property become available.

(4)   That Cabinet consider and give approval for officers to apply for grant funding towards the investigations mentioned in 2.2 and 2.3 and recognise the need to align investigations with grant funding timetables in this instance.

(5)   That Cabinet resolve to discount options A, B and G and recommend that they are no longer developed or explored further.

(6)   That Cabinet indicates that Options C, F and H outlined within the report should be pursued further.

REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION:

(1)   Officers do not have the capacity or financial budget to progress all 8 options to an advanced stage and some early decisions are required in order to focus time and budget on pursuing the most advantageous options based on the best information available to officers and members at the present time.

(2)   In addition, the pursuit of greater detail on a number of the options will require expenditure on external reports and consultants which officers are seeking Cabinets approval to progress. Estimated figures are included in the main body of the report which can be found in Appendix 1 and are summarised in the Executive Summary Grid in Appendix 2.