Minutes:
The Committee considered a report which outlined proposals for the future use and management of the City Hall.
The Committee was advised that reports had been presented to the Committee on a number of occasions in respect of various aspects of the future use and management of the City Hall building and, whilst they had been discussed in depth, no firm decisions on management had been made.
The Director of Property and Projects pointed out that those reports had highlighted the fact that the City Hall hosted in excess of 300 functions annually in the 3 prestige function rooms and, in virtually all cases, the use of the building was provided to the approved function organiser at no cost, with the associated security, cleaning, supervision, cloak-room, bar staffing costs and utility costs being absorbed by the Council. In addition, there were no charges for public or private tours of the building which would help offset the increasing staffing costs associated with providing the tours.
The Committee was reminded also that representations had been received from local businesses pointing out that free provision of prestigious venues such as the Great Hall or Banqueting Hall was having an adverse impact on their ability to let their own facilities at competitive market rates.
In light of the above, and the Council’s efficiency agenda, it was appropriate for the Committee to now consider the situation in which the City Hall was routinely provided free of charge for the full range of events which had an external focus and which had little or no specific relationship with the City or the Council or its wider aims and objectives. If Members were minded to change the situation, there were three main ways in which the use of the City Hall for functions and events could be more effectively controlled, namely:
(a) revision of the criteria governing access to the building for functions and events;
(b) imposing a charge for some/all types of functions as a way of rationing access and recovering some of the associated costs; and
(c) ration access in other ways for some/all types of events and functions (for example by applying a “once-in-three-years” approach).
The report provided details on how these issues could be managed and addressed and a number of other additional City Hall related issues, such as requests for the ILLUMINATE (LED) lighting system of the City Hall’s three main facades, the operation of the proposed new Exhibition Area in the City Hall; and the opening of the City Hall main gates.
After discussion, the Committee agreed to:
(a) the revision of the criteria governing access to the function areas in the City Hall with a report to be submitted to a future meeting;
(b) the introduction of charging for external functions which were commercial in nature;
(c) the introduction of a “one-in-three-years” approach for events and functions held in the City Hall;
(d) the application of a charge for commercial tour operators;
(e) the submission of a further report on the criteria for the use of the ILLUMINATE system to a future meeting; and
(f) change the position with regard to the main gates, that is, to routinely have the gates open as opposed to closed during working hours.
Supporting documents: