[meersbrook-house] Public Meeting working group 24th July

[Nick Roscoe]

Hi Laura and All

I still want to come to this on 24th - let me now where it ends up being.
Kaktus are you coming to this?

Not many people came to the last meeting, which is a worry, as with only
about ten people you don't really know if the decisions of the meeting are
that representative.  With this in mind, and in light of a suggestion Cate
McDonald made to me that we are a 'self selected group' I think it is
essential to focus on promoting this meeting for a wide attendance, and to
use the meeting to accurately record the sentiments of the local community,
as there is no guarantee any council led 'public consultation' will succeed
in doing this.

I think Cate was perfectly entitled to make that point, but the question
that it begs is, what are the primary concerns of the local community? - in
terms of users of the Park, obvious stakeholder organisations and in
particular the residents of Brook Road directly facing onto the building.

A friends group with lots of members signed up can be a powerful
representative of public sentiment, provided there are strong aims and
objectives, but even now I think there is too much potential in them for
pavilion users to be played off against those whose main concern is that
Meersbrook Hall and chunks of Meersbrook Park.

So I think the shape of any questionnaire at the Sept meeting or otherwise
is very important.  We need a record of the concerns and priorites of local
residents and groups.

Note that our working name was almost agreed as 'Friends of Meersbrook
Hall' at the last meeting, but 'and Pavilion' was added for the time being
to attract pavilion users to the public meeting.  Ultimately we need robust
and unified objectives which will be attractive to funders and they are
primarily the HLF, Big Lottery and Locality related projects  (see this -
just announced -http://locality.org.uk/projects/power-change/)

re legal structure, a discussion of that needs to keep an eye on these pots
of money. I have lots of thoughts but can't do 4th Aug, any chance of early
next week instead?  Though all we can really do is outline options which a
management committee should be able to decide on.

On the subject of HLF - this building is listed and has plenty of
interesting history around it and the park.  The connection with Ruskin is
important and adds to the historical weight of our project.   It is a big
mistake to pit 'saving an old building' against securing community
resources.  The building is not under threat, but also it is not just an
'old building'.   It is an important listed building with interesting
history and a legacy as a community asset wrapped up into it.   As someone
who has tried to save non listed old buildings I know only too well that
the listed status and historical aspects will be key to a proposal for this
building can be reclaimed AS a community resource.  That's where a lot of
the money is which could kickstart this project.  Moreover HLF are
currently making a thing about parks as public assets and the threat they
face from cash starved local councils - this can only be a good thing as
far as funding from them is concerned.

http://www.hlf.org.uk/news/Pages/StateUKParks.aspx


Nick

On 20 July 2014 21:53, Laura Holmes <laura at b4wd.org.uk> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>
>
> Can I just check who is planning to come to the working group meeting on 24
> th July? I know a lot of people now have other commitments.
>
>
>
> Just a reminder that the proposed agenda is up on the forum at
> http://meersbrook.technologikal.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=18 – please
> shout up if you are having difficulty accessing this.
>
>
>
> Helen – have you been able to book the Pavilion? Will need to make sure
> someone with a key is coming or make arrangements to get access.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Laura.
>
>
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