Thread Topic: Town Hall makeover
Topic Originator: John Tyers
Post Date June 23, 2011 @ 7:48 AM |
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| John Tyers |
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I read with some incredulity in these times of supposed austerity that a further £40,000 expenditure is planned for the Town Hall in addition to £150,000 already spent. This, at a time when we are closing the Museum for lack of funds. Seems to me the priorities are wrong; we promote ourselves as the most cultured town in the county yet we do not have a school with a sixth form. Every other town in the county has a Grammar School but after this years intake, there will be no more selected local kids having their chance at the Endowed Schools, the county funding being withdrawn. In the future, there is going to be a significant lack of local culture in my view!
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| TONY STORY |
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Hello John, as usual things are not quite what they seem. The Town Hall renovation has been planned over some time, and is necessary to protect the building (damp long overdue maintenance) and bring it up to regulation regarding fire escapes, disability access etc.
The closing of the museum was totally out of the Stamford Town Councils hand, as the front building is owned by SKDC (part of the giveaway when we lost borough status) and Lincoln County Council own the back building. It was the latter who decided to close the museum and open up a smaller edition in the existing Stamford Library. It will be smaller and less comprehensive but is costing a lot of money (from LCC budget). LCC also want to open a "heritage trail" which hopefully will include the Town Hall. There are possible plans to transfer some artefacts to the Town Hall to encourage more of the public and tourists to visit this building. Unfortunately Stamford has suffered from the re-organisation in 1974 when we lost our Borough status and became effectively a parish council. We have advisory powers but, for example, in planning SKDC make the final choices, and do not always follow our advice (this is also sometimes because of legal restraints) However over the last few years Stamford has been able to regain some control over certain areas, due in the main to the Independents gaining more councillors, and hence more influence.
Regarding the school situation, again our councillors are making every effort to persuade the LCC to ensure that Stamford has an effective sixth form system. I agree that this is absolutely important.
Tony
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