Published: Tuesday, 26th November 2024
Residents across Cannock Chase are to be asked to give their views on a future cultural offer for the area - following proposals to close a museum and theatre.
Senior councillors will discuss closing the Museum of Cannock Chase and Prince of Wales Theatre as part of budget measures in a move to protect essential frontline services for the community and key leisure facilities for residents.
The proposals follow a review of the local authority’s ‘Leisure, Culture and Heritage’ offer by experts in the field and the provisional results of a survey on the condition of the buildings used to provide the services.
The council is facing a £1.3m shortfall in its 2025/26 budget which finances key services such as household waste collection, street cleaning and looking after parks and open spaces - as well as a number of other functions.
The council’s leisure and cultural offer is run by Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles (IHL) and includes the Museum of Cannock Chase and the town’s Prince of Wales Theatre - as well as the leisure centres at Cannock and Rugeley.
Members of the council’s Cabinet will hear on Thursday (28 November) that closing the museum and theatre will save more than £350,000 a year - and would help safeguard other key services to residents and businesses. The move will also aim to protect both leisure centres, as well as other community work run by IHL, to tackle health inequalities in the district.
Funding that Cannock Chase Council receives from the government to deliver services has fallen by millions of pounds in real terms over the last decade. The leisure and cultural functions that IHL run on the authority’s behalf are ‘non-statutory’ - meaning the council does not have to provide them unlike many other services.
The council say it would work with community groups and organisations who use the theatre to find alternatives for local productions and activities. Plans are also being drawn up to create a new sustainable heritage offer within the district that does not rely on buildings that are expensive to maintain.
A draft survey of the theatre and museum states that they will require significant expenditure due to the condition of both buildings. The theatre was to shut for up to two years in Spring 2025, as part of proposals to develop a cultural hub, but will now remain closed.
The report recommends the theatre, and museum will close permanently and a final decision will be taken at a meeting of the full council in February following a four-week public consultation.
Council Leader, Tony Johnson, said this was one of the hardest decisions he had ever been involved in as a councillor.
“My family association with the site of the museum goes back generations. My grandfather worked at the Valley Pit. My place of birth was within a few hundred yards of the location. I started my first full time job there when it was the Valley Training Centre - and I did part of my deputy and my shot firing training at the site. It was also in my portfolio as it became the Valley Heritage Centre and then our museum.
“I was the portfolio holder for Leisure and Culture in the late 1990s, early 2000s, when the Prince of Wales was thriving and have enjoyed visiting the theatre on many occasions as a customer or on council business.
He continued: “Nobody wants to be in this position - it is an extremely difficult decision to have to make. But alternatives, such as inflation busting taxes that would hit every household, including those already struggling to make ends meet, or reducing or cutting services which many residents and businesses rely on, is not one we want to contemplate.
“One of our top priorities is to be a responsible authority that lives within its means and is accountable for its actions. This means managing the money we receive from the government, residents and businesses prudently to ensure the best outcome for local taxpayers. This is especially important to remember when you see other councils across the country effectively going bankrupt and having to shut swimming pools or ask for permission to raise taxes significantly.”
“The council has supported our leisure partners during the extremely challenging time when they had to shut, and then only partly open, due to the pandemic. The industry was then hit with the increase in energy prices at a time when they were still struggling to bring numbers back through their doors.
He added: “I read and consider this report with a heavy heart. Not least with regards to the people who work at both locations who in many cases have served the people of our district with skill effort and dedication.
“If councillors agree we will be starting a consultation for views on changes to the leisure and wellbeing offer to ensure it is sustainable for years to come - which everyone can get involved in.”
The full report on the ‘Review of Leisure, Culture and Heritage Provision’ can be found from the council’s website.