Council leader defends heritage and culture plans after criticism from Labour and Peterborough Museum Society

Having a council-backed, non-profit company run Peterborough’s culture and heritage services will help save £2m, Peterborough City Council’s (PCC) leader has said.

Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) defended the council’s decision to have a subsidiary of Peterborough Ltd operate Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, Flag Fen archaeology park and the city’s libraries until the end of the decade at a cabinet meeting this week.

“We do take the provision of leisure, culture, heritage and libraries seriously,” Cllr Fitzgerald said, adding that the council needed a way to replace the rate relief provided to its former subsidiary – Vivacity Culture and Leisure Trust – to keep these services viable.

The new non-profit will help save costs by helping the council, which owns Peterborough Ltd, realise tax benefits, a council report says.

Rob Hill, one of the PCC officers who worked on the plans, also defended the decision, telling the cabinet that: “since the demise of the Vivacity Culture and Leisure Trust and the rising cost of utilities, we don’t have sufficient funds to maintain the service as it is.

“Moving the services into the subsidiary will allow us the opportunity to bring costs down, secure best value and ultimately avoid having to close any of these services down in the future.”

Suggestion to delay plans is 'ridiculous'

But the plans have come under fire from opposition councillors, while the Peterborough Museum Society has also raised concerns.

PCC’s Labour group called on the cabinet to “withdraw or pause plans to change the leisure, heritage and library services contract pending further consultation” in an open letter to the leader.

In the letter, signed by Cllr Dennis Jones (Labour, Dogsthorpe) and Labour parliamentary candidate Andrew Pakes, the group asked that heritage organisations, councillors and the public are made “part of this discussion before a final decision is made”.

Cllr Fitzgerald said during the cabinet meeting that the suggestion to suspend the decision is “ridiculous” and that what the council will do going forward is “exactly the same” as what it had done in the past with Vivacity.

Council responds to 'profound misgivings' from museum society

PCC also received an open letter from Peterborough Museum Society, which said it has “profound misgivings” about the council’s plans.

These are because “the proposed governance model will not meet the terms of the national standards for museums (Museum Accreditation, administered by Arts Council England),” it said, which could bar the museum from some forms of funding.

At the meeting, Mr Hill said there’s “no immediate threat” of loss of accreditation.

“We are working with our legal teams to make sure that our subsidiary proposal deals with that by making it clear that this is a not-for-profit organisation and in the public interest,” he added.

The arrangements planned for culture and heritage services are the same as those planned for leisure services, such as gyms and swimming pools.

Peterborough Ltd will take over operating the city’s pools – although a new pool in the city, built to replace the Regional Pool, could have a different operator.

“It is our long-term ambition to build a new leisure and pool centre,” Cllr Fitzgerald said at the meeting, “and that work has been progressing behind the scenes”

“We have identified an operator to take it forward,” he added, as “the Regional Pool has had its day”.

The recommendations presented to the cabinet were passed, but Cllr Fitzgerald urged councillors and stakeholders still concerned about the plans to speak to council officers as work progresses.