Response to open letter from SMAG trustees and email from Cllr David Renard

Dear SMAG Trustees and Swindon Borough Council Thank you for your open letters from SMAG and the email from Cllr Renard. I have detailed my response below and hope you will have time to read and consider it. Working Together Before it is Too Late The new-build Museum and Art Gallery project is the choice of some councillors and a selected few. Full public consultation did not happen. It is not surprising, then, that some people feel frustration as awareness of the cost and extent of this project becomes apparent. There is still time, despite what some critics of the Carriage Works Petition claim, to revisit the Museum and Art Gallery proposal for a revised bid before November. It is unacceptable to suggest that the new-build design has to be accepted or there will be no Museum and Art Gallery at all. Many people welcome the idea of a new Museum and Art Gallery but not this particular proposal. Many people in Swindon are keen to save heritage sites. There are also groups which are passionate advocates of this town. All are keen to see heritage sites saved and used with imagination and flair, for the benefit of the community as well as business. Business needs community after all. What these groups need and desire is for SBC to work with them now, with public consultation. Keeping Funding Lines Open The newly-published ‘Delivery Plan’ from the SBC-funded Forward Swindon makes clear that much has to be done to regenerate Swindon. This Delivery Plan – again missing full public consultation and disregarding current heritage group suggestions – covers a range of projects, including the Carriage Works and Mechanics’ Institute. However, it aims only to be ‘fixing the roof’ – that is, ‘picking the most essential jobs to tackle first to prevent further deterioration’. Forward Swindon will need investors and grants to realise its visions. It is vital that a new-build Museum and Art Gallery should not be a trophy piece when other, more urgent projects receive poor treatment. The new-build Museum and Art Gallery could halt future fund lines for even Forward Swindon’s roof-fixing projects. Even IF the new-build Museum and Art Gallery project gains £10 million of HLF money, it is unlikely that the HLF could be approached again to help in Swindon. Similarly, the total investment of £7m from SBC in cash and land value could not be made available to restore heritage sites. Hopefully, private investors would not pull funding if the choice of location were changed to better reflect Swindon’s needs and desires. HLF bids are not guaranteed to succeed, so there is a real chance the HLF grant will not be awarded for either a new-build or a heritage site for the Museum and Art Gallery, especially given it is a for an unusually large amount. In this case, the Carriage Works would provide a structure that the Museum and Art Gallery could move into and extend in measured stages, still with more space initially than is in its present Bath Road location. Merging Two Visions for Improved Accessibility and Sustainability It is important to consider where two visions could work together to achieve a fantastic result. The idea that old buildings cannot be made fit for purpose is ludicrous considering how many prestigious redevelopments have successfully changed their use in many cities. Other places have made the re-use of heritage buildings a priority, as Swindon should. It is also widely acknowledged that heritage buildings attract more visitors and pay more back in returns on initial investment. Forward Swindon shows that the Carriage Works could provide a more sustainable and more accessible space than that of the new-build Museum and Art Gallery. The new-build’s sustainability is dependent on a questionable 90k annual footfall, a small space for additional income outlets and overblown estimations of how it will attract people to the Town Centre. Swindon Town Centre businesses are already finding rent and rates too expensive – the claim that the new-build Museum and Art Gallery will help SBC to raise rates and rents is worrying. Our Town Centre would be better improved by providing a decent market, lowering rents and rates in order to draw in independent, unusual traders and to ensure all shops are rented out – these are techniques widely acknowledged to help town centres compete against the internet market. The new-build location is not as easily accessible by road or public transport as the Carriage Works. For pedestrians, the only way for people to access this site from the pre-existing Regent Street flow would be the narrow alley alongside the Savoy pub. Satisfactory sight line and approach options from Regent Street are severely restricted by the immoveable Telephone Exchange and access via Fleming Way is indirect. Much more development work in the new-build area would need to follow. There will need to be as an extension or new-build of the Wyvern Theatre and a redevelopment of the Law Court area, which could make the area around the new-build Museum and Art Gallery a building site for some time. The Carriage Works is, on the other hand, enormous and more sustainable. It is more directly and openly accessible by foot from the Town Centre and transport stations. It has nearby car parks and is nearer main artery roads. Pedestrians could be naturally drawn through an access point from the Carriage Works to move into the Town Centre along East Street, where they would pass the historic Railway Village and 1-3 Faringdon Road. It is also near other heritage sites such as the Mechanics Institute and the Heath Hydro, which are both subject to improvement plans. All of the above are easily accessible from the (to-be improved) foot tunnel which links The Steam Museum and the Outlet Village, and its car parks. The £77k Feilden Clegg Bradley study SBC paid for c. 2006 proposed a heritage trail linking the Town Centre to the Railway area, which it recommended as Swindon’s cultural centre – so this idea has had been recommended by award-winning architects. The digital arts, learning, artist studios and creative businesses Forward Swindon wish to attract to the Carriage Works would happily co-exist with more kudos within a Carriage Works’ Museum and Art Gallery site. They would also provide the Museum and Art Gallery a sustainable income. A yard space between the east and west buildings is included in Forward Swindon’s plans for outdoor events and a café – again, income generators. This space could be enhanced with an eye-catching sculpture and prominent signage for the Museum and Art Gallery, which would be seen from the train line. There is also more space for larger exhibits, and it already has been suggested as a venue for exhibits from the Science Museum. It is without doubt that some good people have put a lot of work and effort into the new-build Museum and Art Gallery, but it is ill-advised for Swindon and much should be learnt about the necessity of public consultation from the reaction to this proposal. Urgent work needs to be done by all concerned, with full public consultation, to prepare a better Museum and Art Gallery bid before the November HLF bid submission date. This petition is not intended as an act of sabotage, but as a sincere attempt to refocus Swindon’s development efforts before it is finally too late to properly regenerate an area totally unique to Swindon. Any town can have a grand new-build - only Swindon can have a Railway Quarter with such a marvellous Museum and Art Gallery. The petition is still available on www.change.org and I am happy to be contacted for access to a paper version of the petition. Regards, Ana Kelly