Green Party Barbican Motion

Speech delivered on Thu 22nd Jan 2009

To expand just a little, everything contained in this motion has largely been rehearsed

in the previous motion.

The only things I have to add relate to the issue of a trust and the future use of the site.

The Auditorium site covers only the Barbican Centre building. It is an entertainment

venue and not the wider leisure complex with which the Barbican name is historically

linked. The former pool site has been sold for development as a hotel.

The previous mix of entertainment and sports facilities proved highly problematic

which made it impossible to maintain a coherent programme or to respond to market

demand for conference facilities, a subject I referred to when address the previous

motion. This in part, was the source of its commercial troubles and the reason why the

venue required a significant annual Council subsidy. That is why the agreed council

strategy separated out the sports facilities and relocated them.

It is very unlikely that an entertainments venue of the nature of the Barbican could fit

with charitable objectives, which are essential for a trust. Nor would there be

operating advantages. The building needs significant capital investment, which would

not be available to a trust. Trust might play a useful part for sports provision

elsewhere in the city. Officers brought a report on the establishment of a sports trust

to run the council's leisure facilities in December 2003 but the idea was rejected at

that time. The issue is being revisited as a part of the ongoing Leisure and Culture

review. But this is in the context of new or newly refurbished facilities not ones

requiring extensive investment.

I move the amendment.