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Sheffield City Council...spending on heritage, tourism and culture.


lysander

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I have been unable to log on this site for months... but I had promised to let you all know what a Freedom of Information request had revealed. Here goes: I received the letter at the end of April but have only just been able to log on!

"Coun. Isobel Bowler is Cabinet Member for culture, leisure and sport. Marketing Sheffield's work includes responsibility for tourism but does not have officers with sole responsibility for it. There are 2 staff employed to deliver visitor services. The Culture and Environment service has a Head of Business Development(culture);two Accesses to Nature and Heritage Woodland Managers;one Project Officer for heritage parks;a Curator for the Sheffield Botanical Gardens

There is no defined proportion of the Marketing Sheffield budget dedicated to tourism.

The City Council in 2015/16 is providing a total of £2,385,000 to Museums Sheffield, Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, Sheffield Theatres, Showroom Arthouse Cinema and Site Gallery, plus £12,000 for heritage parks/visitor provision. [ This totals £2,505,000}

Sheffield's museums, theatres and galleries are all independent organisations or trusts, and not part of SCC. Several of the Trusts have successfully applied for external funding for specific projects or building improvements since 2013, including:

Museums Sheffield ( Weston Park)...£746,000 ( Heritage Lottery)

Sheffield Theatres ( Lyceum)...£1,000,000 from Arts Council ( matched by £500,000 from SCC)

Site Gallery...£109,000 from Arts Council England

Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust( Kelham Island)...£419,200 ( letter doesn't say from where grant was received)

Sheffield Culture Consortium ( a network of the larger cultural organisations, with officer support from SCC)...Arts Council England Destinations...£271,000

 

No external funding was lost because of a lack of interest"

I hope we all find this of interest... I especially like the fact that we received more in grants than SCC itself granted.

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I beg to differ about no funding was lost due to lack of interest. I have a copy of a letter that my MP gave to me from the Arts Council citing lack of structure and interest in Sheffield in Culture and Heritage as a reason to reduce funding. I also have had conversations with various funders who have told me as much. I have also had various conversations with various heritage groups that have told me the same thing. I can't site individual cases as that would be breach of confidentiality. It is a fact that Sheffield receives much lower levels in Heritage and Arts funding than other Northern Cities. If it was not for Sheffield University engagement and funding we would be much worse off. Tourism used to be funded by the regional development funds. When the government closed these down the budget for English tourism dropped to £1 million for whole of England. Both Scotland and Wales have several times larger budgets. It is now down to individual businesses advertising through Yorkshire Tourism. As vast majority of Sheffield's heritage attractions are on low budgets and often reliant on one off charitable funding they can't afford the cost of advertising. I have pointed out to the Council that simply listing attractions on their website as do other councils would help and would cost them nothing.

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Speaking from a personal point of view when I was connected with projects seeking funding, it was always very hard to get anything out of the Arts Council. Since they were always spending the big sums on theatres. Looking at that list above it seems little has changed, with a million pound given to the Lyceum Theatre. One wonders why, when it charges people to go and see plays. Could it be because the Crucible Theatre, not a million miles from it, takes much of it's potential revenue away from it?

Perhaps things might change when the Sheffield Castle project begins to take shape. But the Council, being Labour controlled, has generally put the bag on tourism in Sheffield.

The odd thing is that if you walk in the City streets and listen, it's fairly obvious that the people are not from Sheffield. A few years ago I was doing a publicity drive for the Norfolk Heritage Trail and we had a stall on Fargate. As we talked to the passes by, it was clear that most of them had no-idea of the connection with the Duke of Norfolk. Some thought it was about a trail in Norfolk itself! In fact several people came up to us who were from Norfolk.

One of the problems that you get from these funding organisations is that you have to demonstrate that you have people who can handle the responsibility of handling the cash. These involve a lot of rules and red tape. I know of one project, I won't say what, that was told they couldn't have a "friends group" running it. It had to be done by a designated organisation who the funder would deal with. This caused many of the volunteers to quit. The organisation that was appointed eventually took over everything and did excluded anyone or any organisation from being involved, even though when the organisation first started it was meant to be a "partner" to the groups involved and was, till the funding came along.  

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There are indeed a lot of hoops prospective groups have to jump through to get funding. I had a friend who worked for a council who helped groups do just that. Many small groups just don't know where to start. Arts funding even for theatres and museums is quite small compared to other northern cities. Lyceum grant was unusual and they did also find alternative funding to match it. £1 million sounds a lot but is actually quite a small grant given the age and size of the building to be refurbished and the fact that government has added 20% VAT on to all work on listed and older buildings. I know of applications that were well presented though that were turned down because they were told they lacked "local support" and according to my source from one of the major funders that "local support" meant Council and they weren't talking financial. In Leeds where they apparently have had similar problems they have founded a citywide Civic Heritage trust which includes Indy traders, small businesses as well as all the community groups. This is something we could do too. It would give us a louder voice & help organisations looking for external funding.   

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Sheffield Council used to have a funding advice bureau that helped community groups get money. I don't know if they have it still. It was connected with F&CS too, but I'm not certain they still have Community Workers in these days of spending cuts.  

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I was merely repeating what SCC had told me after I had requested the information. What would be interesting would be to find out what similar sized Cities spend and receive on heritage etc..... I shall start the ball off by repeating my request to Leeds Council

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I was merely repeating what SCC had told me after I had requested the information. What would be interesting would be to find out what similar sized Cities spend and receive on heritage etc..... I shall start the ball off by repeating my request to Leeds Council

Thank you very much for the efforts that you have expended so far, and for posting the responses that you have received.

I think that your intention of "widening the net", in order to establish as to what is happening with other local authorities is an extremely good idea, and should hopefully provide some clarity as to whether Sheffield indeed compares badly with other "Northern" cities, (as most of us seem to think), or not.

Leeds would be a good choice to start with, especially as they already possess several good museums and cultural attractions already.

If that is indeed the case, then your responses would provide some useful ammunition with which to challenge, and hopefully, confound our "elected" local representatives.

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Yes please that would be helpful. I have by word of mouth the suggestion that Leeds is not getting the support from the Council they would like, but heresay is not as good as facts and figures. Manchester has had a strong heritage and culture climate since the 1970s but whether that is still the case I don't know. I have heard mixed reports from Birmingham. Until recently they had a very strong museum complex but have finally succumbed to cutbacks. There has been mutterings about changes in the city centre. Nottingham who had been doing badly despite their fame are now working hard on auditing their heritage buildings and have produced some glossy documents. Generally outside London funding is low. There is a small pot for a lot of Northern cities especially re Arts funding.

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THe answer from Leeds is as follows:

 

1) They have one Councillor with overall reponsibility for Culture, Heritage and Tourism.

2) They have 527 Full Time Equivalents employed in CH&L

3) Their annual budget for CH&L is...£18.1 million

4) They received external funding of £6.1 million for CH&L

5) Their overall Government grant has been reduced by 20%.

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Thanks Lysander.

Informative, I think?

I am not sure as to how easy it is to draw a direct comparison between the Sheffield City Council budget and the Leeds City Council budget, as you can never be certain as to what is, and what is not included within each set of figures. After all, what is deemed as being Culture, Heritage and Tourism by one, may not be deemed as being the same thing by the other.

However, what does seem very striking, is that whereas the former seems to be expressed in hundreds of thousands of pounds, the latter seems to be expressed in millions of pounds. And that, on face value, is a very big difference indeed.

Is that a fair conclusion do you think?

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 Leeds is a somewhat bigger City these days than Sheffield and , from yesterdays revelations of earnings, it is richer.

I am a Sheffielder and have lived here for most of my 70 odd years. That said, I have long believed that we are, by and large, a "Philistine City" with priorities which put "culture and heritage"  firmly at the bottom of the list. I well remember the opposition to the building of the Crucible...." a waste of money that will only benefit a few rich, arty, crafty types"....were the words of a one time Council leader who proudly wore his working class background on his sleeve..

Clearly, Sheffield CC does not seek to make the City an attractive place for tourism. Keith Cheetham must wonder why he ever bothered dressing up in his tights to publicise our links with Mary Queen of Scots.

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Of course, they did, if I rightly recall, squander over £800 million on that biggest non-event in sporting history, namely, The World Student Games, and, if I also, rightly recall, they will still be servicing the debt and interest repayments accrued on that particular debacle, until 2024 at the earliest.

Which, I suppose, does not leave much left over for investment in cultural and heritage projects, especially when there are other, far more worthy priorities to consider, such as refurbishing the Town Hall, and of course, you can never have too much civic funded street "art" and street furniture, can you?

Incidentally, what you have discovered so far, is most interesting, even though, a little depressing.

Do you intend to extend your enquiries to any other local authorities, and if so, whom?

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Problem with both Leeds and Sheffield is only seeing Heritage as cultural and not part of the economy of the city. When you start counting small businesses and even some larger companies that use older buildings in the city, you see it is more than just a load of old buildings, which Councils and the Government seem to think they are. There are several research papers that show old buildings are extremely important to the economy. Add the visitor attractions such as Lyceum, Manor Lodge, Abbeydale Hamlet and you start realising our whole economy is linked in with heritage and could also help bring in even more with a bit more imagination from the Council. Seems to me they are hell bent on shooting themselves in the foot while they are going for grandiose expensive schemes and demolishing the heart of the city.  Trouble is its also our foot they are shooting. Anyway have arranged a networking event at Union Street building. That's the one across from Howden House.  

A lot of different people talk to me about why they feel heritage is important I thought it would be good to get them talking to each other face to face. 

 

Heritage Networking Event 23rd September-page0001.jpg

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I am not really sure if the WSG was about ...culture, heritage or tourism... I should have thought it was more about Sport! In defence of SCC they really believed that the event would help regenerate the decimated East End of the City after de-industrialisation. Sadly, they didn't reckon with a Government which refused to help ...in any way!

 

I am not sure if writing to other authorities about their budgets would prove anything. We know that Sheffield is committing very little and I doubt our Councillors would sit up and take any notice even if they found out they were at the bottom of the list!

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What it does, looking at other budgets, is prove to the Council that other cities despite the cuts are doing more. The excuse is always we haven't the money, but it doesn't take money to add a few more details to their website. Nor does it take money to have a councillor be lead person for tourism and Heritage, or write Heritage into their planning documents. They really don't think it is important. Yet if they looked at cities that put heritage at the front of their planning they would see their economy is on the up despite the present economic climate. I am talking to a lot of small businesses and traders that are set to lose their businesses due to Council's lack of understanding re old buildings and urban planning. The more you look at Heritage and economics the more frustrated you get with Sheffield Council. Sporting events are all very well but they are not permanent, nor are the Festivals regards employment either. You may get money coming into the economy but it isn't producing new permanent jobs. Nor will High Speed Rail produce all the jobs they claim. Does 20 minutes quicker journey really mean loads of Londoners will come up to Sheffield? Wouldn't we be better spending money on improving Sheffield's public transport system and better links to Manchester and Leeds?   Doncaster airport is no further away than Heathrow is from most of London. In fact it is quicker from Sheffield to Manchester airport than it is from a lot of places in London to Heathrow.  

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I am not really sure if the WSG was about ...culture, heritage or tourism... I should have thought it was more about Sport! In defence of SCC they really believed that the event would help regenerate the decimated East End of the City after de-industrialisation. Sadly, they didn't reckon with a Government which refused to help ...in any way!

 

I am not sure if writing to other authorities about their budgets would prove anything. We know that Sheffield is committing very little and I doubt our Councillors would sit up and take any notice even if they found out they were at the bottom of the list!

You may be right as to what the WSG was about.

However, I fail to see as to how anyone could make such a gargantuan financial commitment on just a belief, whether an admirable belief for admirable reasons or not. You would surely make certain  that you had an ongoing commitment from others likely to become involved, or not.

Otherwise, it does seem tantamount to buying £800 million in lottery tickets, again, for admirable reasons.

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The Council, rightly or wrongly, did and in any other organisation those responsible, following the financial debacle, would be held to account. One of the original movers, nearly a quarter of a century later, is still on the Council !

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The thing about Sheffield Council was that it was a Labour Party stronghold and that it was very much on the left. So it didn't see "heritage" as being important. Certainly not of the type that Keith Cheetham was interested in. He had to fight for every penny to get something put on at the Manor Lodge.

I was told by one Labour party activist to get money from the Duke of Norfolk, when I was working with the Friends of the Manor. 

The only thing that the Council was interested in where things connected with Socialism. Such as the Chartist movement. They would spend some money on things like that, back in the 1980's, but not on anything connected with the earlier history of Sheffield. In fact most of the Councillors believed that Sheffield didn't have any history to speak of before the industrial revolution. 

I had hope things might have changed these days... But perhaps not...  Many of the heritage projects mentioned have had to struggle and raise the cash to get them off the ground and or keeping them running, without much help from the Council. Indeed many have had what little funding given cut off, or threatened with withdrawal of it by the Council. Indeed the Council would have cut grants to groups given HLF funds, had the Lottery people not insisted on match funding.  

It's no surprise then why Sheffield didn't get the Armouries Museum when both Leeds and Sheffield wanted it, judging by the current stance of Leeds City Council.

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You may be right as to what the WSG was about.

However, I fail to see as to how anyone could make such a gargantuan financial commitment on just a belief, whether an admirable belief for admirable reasons or not. You would surely make certain  that you had an ongoing commitment from others likely to become involved, or not.

Otherwise, it does seem tantamount to buying £800 million in lottery tickets, again, for admirable reasons.

In 1569 the Sheffield Burgesses bought 20s worth of lottery tickets.  The draw was made at the west door of St Paul's cathedral and went on day and night from 11th January to 6th May, because there were 40,000 prizes of 10s each also other merchandise.  The funds raised were to be for harbour repairs and other public works.  There is nothing new.

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I seem to remember that the optimism surrounding the event was quickly deflated when HMG made clear they would not support the event... TV coverage was minimal and even the Gas board only allowed the flame to burn for the opening ceremony.  The Council and its advisors fouled up big style. I helped organise a City wide pub pool contest during the Games and obtained sponsorship from Wards Brewery and we made a profit which went to Charity. I was told , later, that it was the only event that didn't lose money!

However, I thoroughly enjoyed the events...even more so than the Football World and European Cup matches we had in Sheffield

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A few facts about Heritage and culture funding and old buildings.

Central Government spending per head on culture in London was nearly fifteen times greater than in the rest of England in 2012/13

90% of grants from Department of Culture Media and Sport goes to London institutions.
 
Industrial areas receive only 60% of national average re Lottery funding (20% drop in last 5 years)
 
Over 20 years the average funding from Heritage Lottery funding for all projects  in Sheffield was around £3 million a year.
 
This year Nottingham received £11.09 million for one project
 
Leeds received over £8 million for 5 projects 
 
 

 It was estimated that 138,000 businesses were located in an historic building in 2011 providing 1.4 million jobs in the UK This represented 5% of all employment. 

Overall, businesses based in historic buildings contributed over £47 billion in GVA in 2011. This is 3.5% of the UK total GVA

Refurbishing an existing house gave off 15 tonnes of embodied C02 emissions compared to the 50 tonnes given off from a newly constructed building

 

Eating and drinking businesses are 79% more likely to be found in a listed building than in a non-listed.

A listed building is three times more likely to be used as a fashion retail outlet than a non-listed building.

 

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It's all well saying that other areas got more money than Sheffield, but it could be because the success rate from HLF for those areas is not actually as high as those that are applying for the cash. For example Leeds might have more projects applying for cash than Sheffield does, so in comparison maybe Sheffield is more successful as more projects are getting funded.

The bigger projects with huge budgets are more likely to pass the stringent rules of the funders due to them having employed trained people who can work the system. I know from personal experience of funded projects that paid staff will move from project to project around the country doing the thing they know best. They don't stay with the projects when complete as they don't have any challenge for them anymore. Plus the projects can't afford them really. Once complete the project just needs a less well paid manager. Not the type of person that can work with multi-agencies teams. Making certain all sides of the works and those involved run smoothly. If you haven't got that type of person in your project, then the Lottery people will bully you over what they want you to do, if you manage to jump through the hoops and hurdles of getting any money from them in the first place. Which for many small projects is very unlikely.

So it would be nice to know how many projects from Sheffield applied for Lottery funding compared with other places. Plus the percentages of those successful.

After all we can't complain if turns out that only a small amount of projects in the Sheffield area apply for funds, whereas other places get loads of applications.

My experience of projects too would indicate that many groups are not geared up to run the project. They might have certain individuals on board that want the project to do their own interests. This person then might make out the application to the funder. So the criteria set by funding bodies is often not met when a project applies. In heritage terms that might be say an a professional person, wanting to get some specialist work done, which HLF don't fund. Others on the group on the other hand do have the knowledge and are not being heard. If they put their ideas forward the project would be funded. For example there might be a building of national importance that is in trouble, with some members of the group pushing to be done, that HLF would of course fund.

Some projects don't really think out what they want the cash for, or if they got it can they put it to use?  I know of one project (not heritage related) that put in a sum of money for cash based on that they would create over 1000 small business in about two years. The best of course they could achieve was 100 in 3 years. They did get the money, but the project struggled and suffered from serious financial problems, because it simply could not deliver what was required of it.     

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Good question. Have no real data but have hearsay from a number of projects who had similar aims and objectives to places elsewhere and they were turned down. Excuses given for turning down their applications are very inconsistent. I also have seen letter from Arts Council that said Sheffield lacked a structure and a strategy. I have heard from Major National funder (not Lottery) that Sheffield was deemed as "risky" because it lacked strategy. Many fairly successful projects in Sheffield would have been better if they had started with more substantial grant as it is many projects teeter on the brink all the time, lacking sufficient funding to put in a self-sustaining infrastructure, that is to generate enough income to keep buildings in good state of repair.    

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