Your ideas for York Barbican Centre
We invite you to send us your ideas for what should be done on the site of York Barbican Centre. Do you want to keep it as it as a leisure centre? How would this be funded? Or have you any great alternative ideas?
Please email saveourbarbican@yahoo.co.uk with your ideas.
Here are a few possibilities so far...
Dr. John Issitt said:-
Assuming the current plans formed between the Council, Absolute Leisure and Barbican Venture are abandoned - as I hope they will be, I'd like to see:-
The appointment of an impartial Barbican Review Panel to consider and manage the way forward in respect of the Barbican. There should be a schedule of open meetings to which members of the local community, SOB, YSL, local schools, local interest groups, members of the Council, council officers and any other interested parties should be invited and fully able to contribute. New members of the council's workforce, with interest, skill, ideas and enthusiasm would be particularly welcome - we do not want a continuation of the nonsense we have had so far and we do not want to replay the battles we have already had. We need new blood able and willing to provide and support sport, leisure and entertainment facilities for the people of York.
There should be a genuine consultation with the people of York in respect of what should happen to the Barbican - this should not take the form of a choice of pre-set options set by the Council and should be fully open and reviewed by the aforementioned Panel.
The Barbican and its surrounding site belongs to the people of York and should be managed in the interests of those people. The people of York need health, sporting, swimming and entertainment facilities that are affordable and convenient - these were the original aspirations for the Barbican and should remain so. The management of the Barbican by the Council's Leisure Group has to take as its obligation the provision and support of health, sporting, swimming and entertainment on the Barbican site as a non-negotiable priority and as the focus of its efforts.
All decisions in respect of the Barbican have to be realistic - which really means that whatever is suggested has to be economically viable. This will mean that we have to have a business plan which projects the way forward and will have to find sources of funding. No option should be discounted here - all sources of funding and all potentials for income generation will have to be considered in the widest possible way - and we need imaginative, creative and committed personnel to find an imaginative, creative and committed solution. Selling off the entire site is not an option as we would be back to where we are now! But no option should be discounted and, this may mean that we have accept that we may need to sell or lease some of the land in order to raise, or make a contribution to, capital funding.
John Issitt.
Margot said:-
Back to the drawing board completely for a proper public consultation which asks people what they want and gets them involved in the decision-making process.
Given this opportunity I would like to see the whole complex comprising concert hall, cafés, bars, ball-courts, gym, climbing wall, meeting rooms, swimming pools and diving pool, car-park, bowling green, green corridor (the hedgerow) refurbished, maintained and properly-run.
There is a huge need and demand for these facilities in the area - especially with the increase in population due to the addition of thousands of new flats.
I think the facilities could be used much more imaginatively. The Concert Hall complex could house contemporary art exhibitions (Tate York?), IT rooms (internet access for residents) chamber music, small bands, small theatre groups, community groups etc...
Financially I cannot see that a refurbishment should cost nearly as much as excavating a new pool on the Coach Park site. Oaklands Pool has just been refurbished for £1.9m.
I would not like to see the footprint increased by much. The landscaped car park, hedgerow and bowling green, along with the coach park provide a much-needed 'lung' in this heavily polluted part of town. As a pedestrian, Kent Street is the only street I can walk along in the area without being choked by traffic fumes. Foss Island Road, Cemetery Road and Lawrence Street are almost impossible. It is also the only safe route to and from town in the late evening. The concert hall is large enough without being extended across the forecourt.
I would like to see some thinking outside the box for raising funds. Making the complex a charitable trust for example. Lottery funds, sports funds, private companies who would like to see their names connected with a positive effort to deal with anti-social behaviour, obesity, alcoholism etc. Many students used the Barbican and their sports hall is a distant dream - perhaps the university could contribute. I am sure a 'brain storming' at a public meeting could come up with many more ideas. Where did the money for Oaklands' refurbishment come from? There are many companies who specialise in renovating Council Leisure facilities and they could be approached.
Closing this facility and turning it into a night club, hotel and flats is such an outdated idea the mind boggles. We all know that what we need now is proper affordable leisure and exercise facilities within walking distance of people's homes - and proper houses for the citizens of York - not more 1-2 bedroomed flats for insurance companies, real-estate dealers and holiday flats.
Margot.
John Wartho said:-
The present plans for York Barbican's redevelopment should be dropped.
How about making the complex a charitable trust?
The City of York Council has made great play of how much the Barbican cost the taxpayer to run. £500,000pa is quoted. However, a Senior Council Officer said that £380,000 of this sum is business tax paid to central government and lost because the government deems York to be affluent enough not to qualify for a grant from a central fund comprising all business tax. This was not always the situation, at one time Councils collected the business tax and kept it.
The problem came about when central government changed the rules and thus the City of York Council now appears to lose £380,000pa. The Senior Council Officer also said that the problem could be greatly overcome by deciding to manage the Barbican as a Trust. In this way some 80% of the business tax would be refunded. The suggestion was put to the current Council administration who rejected it. The question is why? Three years of such a rebate would equal the £750,000 which Absolute Leisure is paying for a 250-year lease. If the Trust recommendation had been accepted the Barbican Sport and Leisure Centre could have been saved and still be a going concern. Placing the Barbican in a Charitable Trust must be given more thought.
Alternatively, a private company could run the leisure centre even if it remained in Council ownership. There are many such companies and the name of one (DC Leisure Management Ltd ) was given to Mr Charlie Croft recently. However, to use one would mean the tacit admission of how badly the City of York Council had managed the Barbican up to its closure.
Dusty Wartho, Grace Maiden, and John Wartho.
Ernie Dickinson said:-
The Barbican centre is a precious resource. It has been mismanaged for years and this is partly to blame for the horrendous losses that have ensued year upon year. We cannot, however, be blind to the truth. We must realise that losses of over half a million a year cannot be tolerated but Barbican users and residents also have rights and this is why SOB has fought so hard against the stupid development that is proposed.
The inception of the National Business Rate hit the Barbican finances hard. Prior to this the Council set the commercial rate and paid it to itself, largely a paper exercise. The new method of assessing Business Rates was imposed by the last Government. The Council has now to pay the business tax to the Government instead of into its own coffers. This is responsible for about £350,000 of the annual £500,000 plus Barbican loss.
Forming a Charitable Trust might be the answer as a trust would receive an 80% refund of the massive business rate. There could also be extra fund raising, sponsorship and tax break opportunities.
The sheer size of the Barbican operation might prove difficult and a Charitable Trust could be better suited to smaller operations like Yearsley Pool or Edmund Wilson.
I would like to suggest a radical approach to the Barbican problems. The main "centre " buildings could be offered to one of York's two Universities for use as a Performing Arts centre, I realise that the University of York already has excellent facilities for the teaching of the Arts but perhaps the new University of York St John could make use of the premises in its expansion plans. York St John already has thriving Performing Arts courses and I am sure that, as the new University grows and flowers, they could make excellent use of the Barbican.
The Centre would be ideal because of its modern Auditorium. Ideal for Rehearsal, Concerts, Drama etc. It would also serve for many other uses. I'm sure the new University could make the Auditorium available for "City" use on a few dates a year, British Legion Festival, Carol Concert and the Guildhall Orchestra Concerts etc.
The sports hall and ancillary rooms would make excellent rehearsal rooms. The existing catering facilities could be utilised and I am sure that even the bar might come in useful!
I can even suggest a name "the John Sentamu Barbican Performing Arts Centre"
What a welcome to offer our new University and our marvellous new Archbishop!!!.
The financial advantages are obvious and seeing that the present Council is falling over itself to give away the centre, on a 250 year lease, for a paltry sum, with free rent! For night club use, they should have no objection to offering the same deal to the University of York St John.
The Council is also intent on giving away the whole of the Kent Street car and coach park for the development of a second hotel and private car parking.
May I suggest a sensible development on Kent Street, perhaps three or four stories, to fund a new replacement Swimming Pool and sports facilities on the site of the existing, now closed Barbican Pools.
The University of York could perhaps be prevailed upon to part fund this by transferring its "aspirational" pool from the, as yet uncertain, Heslington East site.
Because of the sensitivity of Heslington East, it is unlikely that any University buildings allowed will be higher than two storeys and so the University could benefit from the transfer of its aspirational Swimming Pool to the Barbican site.
The bowling green site could be preserved as public open space. A community garden to be used by residents and students alike, perhaps with an out-door stage. Drama or a string quartet on a summer evening? Why not?
This plan might not need such a very large provision for car parking as the "old" Barbican and so there could be extra scope for community facilities.
Pie in the Sky? I do not think so. I believe it is a good plan. It is better than the insulting development passed by the present Council.
Ernie Dickinson
SOB CHAIR