| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Proposed closure of Wandsworth Museum | |
| Posted by: | Malcolm Grimston | |
| Date/Time: | 09/03/07 18:56:00 |
| The AQPR figure was taken from the Establishment and Employee Report for the Museum which gives a total employee FTE (full-time equivalent) figure, which was 8.93 on the list for last July when the AQPR was written. The discrepancy is accounted for by some posts which at that time were only filled in part, for example a museum assistant working 11 hours in a post established at 23 hours. The budget is based on the full establishment of 11.92 (a figure which has been verified by the Head of Corporate Services) so this is the appropriate figure to use when calculating budget savings. In summary, the AQPR figure was staff in post at that time, the 07-168 figure was the FTE for posts listed on the Council's establishment. £36,580 is the revenue budget allocation for repairs and planned maintenance for the Court House building in 2007/08, which is a percentage of the Leisure & Amenities department's total budget for the year - actual expenditure can be higher or lower in any one year as the costs of managing each building is averaged over 5-10 years. It would be contrary to health and safety regulations to fail to maintain the Museum in a safe state for visitors and repair work crops up on a regular basis in a building of that age. The figures on redundancy etc in 07-168 are correct. Therefore the full costs of the new town centre library are those included in paragraph 16 of 07-169 and considered by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee. There is no budget change to the cost of the Local History/Heritage Service which is shown as £113,000 (excluding all building costs) in para 81 of the AQPR 06-643. Lottery Heritage Fund: the only direct funding has been for local history archives with no direct funding to the Museum, therefore we have received no response. I am not aware of any funding from the Learning & Skills Council apart from (indirectly) a small grant from the Education Department for family learning which was completed, therefore there has been no response from the LSC. The European Social Fund - no funding, therefore no response. The Museum & Galleries Commission (replaced by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, MLA): a grant of £30,000 was received in 1996 and they have confirmed no requirement to repay as the Museum has been in existence for more than five years. The Wolfson Foundation gave a grant of £20,000 in 1995/96 and as far as I know the situation is the same as the MLA case above (indeed it was administered by the MLA) therefore no response. I do not understand the second sentence in question 2. Potential grant clawback is covered by Appendix 2 of report 07-168 (£13,447). Only the V&A have so far written to indicate they may require the return of their grants, representing £9,597 between 1988 and 2006. It is indeed a serious charge that I have deliberately misled anyone - in fact, it is clearly libelous. Why does this have to be so viciously and unremittingly personal on your part instead of our discussing the real benefits and challenges of the changes? |