Category: Tower Arts Centre

Another excellent evening at the Tower on Friday night listening to Angela Brown and the Mighty 45s. The Tower was completely packed. The band was on fire. Angela Brown was awesome! A brilliant end to the week and start to the weekend.

There was just as much energy in the room (although much less on stage) at the public meeting on Thursday night about the future of the Tower Arts Centre. Alistair Marsden has written at some length about the evening (the public meeting that is, not Angela Brown) on the Save Tower Arts blog.

The continued incompetence and – more worryingly – obstinacy shown by the County Council on this remains breathtaking. As time goes on and the County makes no attempt to budge, more and more people are getting more and more angry at the situation. The original decision was embarrassingly half-baked. The combination of Thursday evening and the consultant’s report has confirmed what we knew all along (and which the County denied):

• The Discovery Centre is not going to be any kind of replacement for the Tower
• The current proposal to transfer Tower Arts to Kings School will effectively end the evening programme
• There was a complete lack of consultation behind the original proposal
• The County has made no serious effort to find partners – or even work with the City Council – to keep Tower Arts open
• The County (or at least the Portfolio Holder on the County) has no apparent vision for arts provision in Winchester or in Hampshire – and no idea of the value it brings to the economy and quality of life to the city and the county

Ken Thornber was right to ask for a review – and the extra time should have been a chance to sit down round the table with possible partners and seriously try to find a way forward that preserves and builds on what’s so special about the Tower. But the clock is ticking and there is depressingly little sign that the County is going to move.

As you may have read in the Chronicle, the decision to end the Tower Arts arts programme now looks likely to be delayed to December 7 with a full ‘options appraisal’ and an extension of programming for Spring Season

The original decision was amazingly bad – premature, half-baked and made without any consultation. There should have been a full options appraisal at the start of the project – it’s good that finally there is going to be one. We now need to ensure that it is genuine. It must rigorously explore all the possibilities to maintain or improve arts provision in Winchester and not just be a paper exercise or a fig leaf to justify continuing with their current plan.

It’s great that John Tellett will be able to continue programming in the short term, although it’s essential that the new plan ensures proper programming for the long-term.

The Tower Arts campaign group have done a brilliant job. Our county council team has also worked very hard to get this decision changed. At last there’s a chance that local people may be listened to and that the original, extremely poor decision will be reappraised.