Agenda item

To receive an update regarding Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation from Stuart Sapsford.

Mr Stuart Sapsford, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, thanked the Vice-Chair for the opportunity to address the Committee and gave the Members a verbal update on the Heritage Foundation’s activities over the past few months.

The Vice-Chair thanked Mr Sapsford for his presentation and looked forward to working collaboratively with the Foundation in the future.

A comfort break was held at 21.14

Following the comfort break the Committee Member and Scrutiny Officer undertook a roll call.

Audio Recording 1 hour 26 minutes 04 seconds

Mr Stuart Sapsford, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, thanked the Vice-Chair for the opportunity to address the Committee and gave the Members a verbal update on the Heritage Foundation’s activities over the past few months including:

·                It had been a challenging period due to the Covid-19 pandemic;

·                Income from the property portfolio was down by £2.5m (20%) and the loss of income was expected to continue for 2021 and potentially 2022;

·                A strategic review of the business model had been carried out to identify savings. This had resulted in some redundancies and services being cut;

·                Funding of £224,000 had been secured from the Arts Council through the Cultural Recovery Fund which had given a lifeline to services – this would be used to create some posts to support heritage and cultural offers;

·                The £600,000 per annum grants budget would continue to be provided to the community;

·                The Community Response Service had been formed to support people affected by Covid-19;

·                Services cut included: Active Letchworth; the theatre until at least the end of 2021; the Community Transport Service; Discover Letchworth and the Ernest Gardiner Treatment Centre;

·                Short-term investment for the museum service collection and the Broadway Gallery had been secured;

·                The ambition for 2021 was that the Cinema and Standalone Farm would generate greater revenues to support re-investment in the community;

·                Services which remained included Stewardship and Development; the Cinema; cultural learning for children and young people; the Families and Child Development project primarily focused on the Jackman’s Estate supporting families in poverty in that area;

·                The focus would be on creating strong partnerships within the town, new activities and drawing in money from other funders to do more as well as supporting the vulnerable groups emerging with the pandemic which was pushing people into poverty;

·                Delays with the Local Plan process were significant;

·                The Foundation was part of the strategy group identifying ways of drawing people into the town;

·                Other priorities included income recovery, ensuring tenants could remain; supporting new organisations and businesses to take on tenancies; looking at housing within the Local Plan and LG1 and other schemes and initiatives; working with local entrepreneurs and activists to support health and wellbeing and culture; celebrating the green spaces; attracting more people to Letchworth and giving opportunities to people within the town;

·                The new strategy would be publicised later in the year.

The following Members took part in the debate and asked questions:

·                Councillor David Levett;

·                Councillor Morgan Derbyshire;

·                Councillor Ian Mantle;

·                Councillor Mike Rice.

In response to questions Mr Sapsford advised:

·                That the Foundation was looking at alternative models to deliver the Community Transport Scheme more cost-effectively.

·                That the Ernest Gardiner Treatment Centre cost in the region of £350,000 per annum to run and its specialist staff had sadly been made redundant.

·                The Heritage Foundation was working with the Primary Care Network to establish a Covid Assessment Centre and in the future a Covid Rehabilitation Centre at the premises but in the short to medium term it could not be supported.

The Vice-Chair thanked Mr Sapsford for his presentation and looked forward to working collaboratively with the Foundation in the future.

A comfort break was held at 21.14

Following the comfort break the Committee Member and Scrutiny Officer undertook a roll call.