GETTING MORE OUT OF OUR SPENDING Museums Public Consultation Report 1. Executive Summary 1.1 Overall, the consultation has shown that people in Stockport value the current museum offer and are resistant to changes to the current portfolio of sites. 1.2 The proposal to reduce the number of museum sites operated by the Council, which would potentially involve changing the current offer at Stockport Museum, the War Memorial Art Gallery and Chadkirk Chapel elicited the most negative response of all the proposals. This has also led to establishment of two public petitions on the change.org platform, which have collectively 7099 signatories. 1.3 The feedback on the proposal in relation to opening hours received a slightly less negative response than the proposal to reduce the number of museum sites, but the majority of respondents did not agree with this proposal. 1.4 Support was more balanced for the proposal to change fees and charges for admission to Stockport’s museums. 2. Background 2.1 Stockport Museums’ purpose is to educate, inspire and entertain audiences by providing access to the town’s unique history through buildings, collections and activities. It aims to achieve this through: Providing an engaging museum offer which attracts visitors to Stockport and encourages residents to explore their town’s heritage. Safeguarding collections which tell the story of the town and continually improving access to these. Providing lifelong learning opportunities relevant to the museum’s portfolio. Making the museums portfolio sustainable for the future by reducing costs and maximising income generation opportunities. Stockport Museums are responsible for managing the Council’s museum collections and currently the following sites: Air Raid Shelters, Bramall Hall, Chadkirk Chapel, Hatworks, Staircase House, Stockport Museum and Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery. 1 2.2 As part of the Medium-Term Financial Plan programme for 2020/21, it was proposed that changes would be made to the Council’s museums offer to achieve a budget saving of £0.150m. This would involve: Reducing the number of museum sites run by Stockport Council; Changing opening hours at Stockport’s museums; Changing the fees and charges for admission to Stockport’s museums and; Reducing the management of the museums team (not subject to public consultation). 2.3 Proposals were further detailed as follows: Proposal 1: Reducing the number of museum sites run by Stockport Council (a) Relocate the Stockport Museum family gallery to a more suitable and accessible location in Stockport Town Centre, making greater use of the War Memorial Art Gallery for displaying the Council’s other museum collections and close Stockport Museum in the Market Place. (b) Offer local organisations the opportunity to run the visitor and refreshment facility at Chadkirk Chapel and for the Council to cease operating the museum offer at the site. Proposal 2: Changing opening hours at Stockport’s museums (a) Change public opening hours at the Air Raid Shelters so that the site is open to the public Thursday and Friday 1pm – 5pm and Saturday and Sunday 11am – 4pm. Schools and pre-booked groups will still be able to visit outside of these times. (b) Change public opening hours at Bramall Hall so that the site is open to the public Thursday and Friday 1pm – 5pm, Saturday 10am – 5pm and Sunday 11am – 4pm. (c) Change public opening hours at the War Memorial Art Gallery so that the site is open to the public Thursday and Friday 1pm – 5pm, Saturday 10am – 5pm and Sunday 11am – 4pm. Following the proposed closure of Stockport Museum, extended opening hours will be introduced. (d) Change public opening hours at Staircase House so that the site is open to the public on Saturday 10am – 5pm and Sunday 11am – 4pm. Schools and pre-booked groups will still be able to visit outside of these times. (e) Introduce new public opening hours at Hatworks after the site’s refurbishments of Thursday and Friday 1pm – 5pm, Saturday 10am – 5pm 2 and Sunday 11am – 4pm. Schools and pre-booked groups will still be able to visit outside of these times. (f) Discontinue Bank Holiday opening at Air Raid Shelters, Hatworks, Staircase House and War Memorial Art Gallery. Proposal 3: Changing the fees and charges for admission to Stockport’s museums (a) Maintain free of charge access to Stockport’s core collections, which tell the story of the town and the museums’ family gallery. (b) Introduce new charging structures for our specialist museums which aim to better cover the cost of operating these sites. 3. Methodology 3.1 The public consultation ran from 18th September to 18th November 2019 via the Councils Have Your Say website. Paper copies were made available at all Council museum sites. As part of the consultation process, meetings took place with representatives of the following groups to explain the proposals in more detail: Friends of Chadkirk Stockport Art Guild Vernon Mill Artists 3.2. The consultation asked respondents the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the proposals and to outline the impact the proposals would have on them. In relation to Proposal 2, respondents were invited to make alternative suggestions as well as indicate if they agreed or disagreed. 3.3 Two public petitions were started in response to the proposals: Prevent the Closure of Stockport Museum on the change.org platform. Stop the Closure of Stockport Art Gallery on the change.org platform. 3.4 All museums staff were invited to provide comments on the proposed changes. Separate statutory consultation took place with staff in the museums team whose current roles, working hours and/or patterns might be affected if the proposed changes came into effect. The feedback from this process is not included in this report. 3 4. Summary of Responses 4.1. 1084 responses were received via the Have Your Say website and 114 paper copies of the consultation document were received. 4.2. By the end of the public consultation, there were 4565 signatories to the Prevent the Closure of Stockport Museum petition and 2534 signatories to Stop the Closure of Stockport Art Gallery. Relevant comments from the petitions were assessed in relation to the proposals made in the public consultation. 4.3. Separate submissions on the public consultation were received from 5 stakeholder organisations. The staff consultation on the broad proposals elicited 9 responses, including 2 group responses. 5. Feedback on Proposals Proposal 1: Reducing the number of museum sites run by Stockport Council 5.1 70.6% (829 respondents) strongly disagreed or tended to disagree with this proposal. 24.3% (285 respondents) strongly agreed or tended to agree with this proposal. The table below shows the full breakdown: 70 (6.0%) Strongly Agree 215 (18.3%) Tend to Agree 54 (4.6%) Neither Agree nor Disagree 171 (14.6%) Tend to Disagree 658 (56.0%) Strongly Disagree 6 (0.5%) Don't Know 5.2 919 respondents provided comments on the impact the proposal would have on them. Of these 63.3% were negative, 30.4% were neutral and 6.3% were positive. 5.3 119 (12.9%) of these comments related specifically to proposals concerning Stockport Museum. Of these 97 (81.5%) were negative, 3 (2.5%) were supportive and 19 (16.0%) were neutral. 5.4 87 (9.5%) of these comments related specifically to proposals concerning the War Memorial Art Gallery. Of these 68 (78.2%) were negative, 14 (16.1%) were positive and 5 (5.7%) were neutral. 5.5 132 (14.4%) of these comments related specifically to proposals concerning Chadkirk Chapel. Of these 100 (75.8%) were negative and 32 were positive (24.2%). 5.6 The most commonly recurring themes amongst the impacts outlined in the public consultation exercise and in other feedback were: Respondents felt that Stockport’s current number and diversity of 4 museums was a strength which the town should build upon for the purposes of tourism rather than try to reduce this offer. Respondents were concerned about the loss of cultural sites as this reduced the number of places to visit locally and eroded to the Borough’s heritage, which the Council has a duty to preserve. It was felt by many that Stockport Museum provided an accessible location for residents to interact with local history collections, through exhibitions such as the Family Gallery and Strawberry Studios. It was considered that moving collections to the War Memorial Art Gallery would make them significantly less accessible. Respondents felt that it was counter-intuitive to close Stockport Museum given the investment that the Council had recently made in improving the Market Place. Should footfall further improve to this area, this would generate new users of the museum. Respondents believed that the Council should be encouraging visitors by offering an extensive range of attractions, especially under the current condition of the high street. It was acknowledged that the museum provides an important education facility for local schools and this service should not be discontinued. Concern was raised that relocating collections to the War Memorial Art Gallery would change the nature and purpose of this site and would mean that there would be less space for local groups and temporary exhibitions. Respondents felt that Chadkirk Chapel and the surrounding estate were an important community facility for local residents and walkers, but that there was scope for this being managed in a different way to maximise its potential. 5.7 A number of alternative suggestions were made in responses to this proposal or in other feedback. A recurring theme was that local awareness of all museum sites was low and that there needed to be much better signposting, marketing and promotion.