Red House... saved

Kirklees Council’s cabinet has recommended keeping open the Red House Museum. From the Kirklees Council press office:

Cabinet recommends keeping open Red House and retaining free bulky waste collections

Kirklees Council’s cabinet has put forward its recommendation to council. This amends the budget proposals which the council published last month, and will keep a locally important museum open and amend plans to charge for bulky waste collection because of concerns about fly tipping.

The new proposals – if they are agreed at full council later this month – will also reinstate the £192,000 community grants funding allocation which was proposed to be saved.
In the short term, the amendments will mean using £1 million from council reserves, but in the longer term officers will be asked to look at income generation to make up the shortfall.

Removing the proposal to close Red House will mean £116,000 will need to be found through charges to cover the budget shortfall.

Reinstating the community grants funding allocation will mean finding a further £192,000, and savings to be made from plans to charge for removing bulky items from homes mean £318,000 will need to be found.

A plan to remove school transport on denominational grounds has also been removed.

Council leader Mehboob Khan said: “Many councils face similar issues to us in that we are being squeezed by central government at the same time as our income streams are also being hit because of the slow economic recovery.

“So proposals have been made to reduce our expenditure which we would never have dreamed of considering a few years ago, but we were elected on our principles to reduce inequalities, have healthier and more active older people, have the best possible life chances for our young people, and to ensure that Kirklees is ready to benefit from economic recovery.

“We have proposed to save Red House Museum – it is an important part of our history and we want to look at more innovative ways of generating the income needed to keep it running, or look at how we might make the saving elsewhere.

“Bulky waste collection is another area where we feel that imposing a charge at this time may lead to the council paying the shortfall in a different way, through having to deal with an increase in fly-tipping for example.”

He added: “Kirklees still faces a challenging few years as we look to reduce our spending by £64 million a year – this financial pressure is unprecedented, and it is not enough just to reduce bits of service, we have to look fundamentally at what we provide, what we commission and how we can balance our budgets.”

The Spenborough Guardian has been following the discussions at the cabinet and it seems that the the final decision of the Council will be positive (cross fingers):

Kirklees Tories have pledged to save the under-threat Red House Museum in their budget proposals.
The group met on Monday to thrash out its main proposals and priorities which it hopes to secure in the council budget.
Deputy leader Coun David Hall (Liv/Gom) said: “Amongst the initiatives we have put forward are proposals to save Red House Museum which the council wanted to close, and we have developed a plan to retain glass collections in the borough, which again the council wanted to stop. 

And later on:

The Labour cabinet met today (Tuesday) to thrash out its amendments to the council’s budget recommendations, which included plans to close the historic Gomersal building.
However, after both the Tory and Lib Dem groups announced they would not support the closure and the Labour group has followed suit.
A working group will now look at ways to generate an income from museums throughout the district.

The Liversedge & Gomersal Labour has an interesting post on the future of the Red House Museum; Kath Pinnock (Liberal Democrat Councillor) is happy about the decision made.

The Telegraph and Argus and The Huddersfield Daily Examiner also have articles about this.

Brontë Society Life member Imelda Marsden has written to us to say,

This evening Tuesday 7 Feb the Kirklees Council Cabinet held a metting at Huddersfield town hall to discuss the councils cuts in the district.
I am  pleased to inform all who wrote letters,sent e-mails and signed petitions to save Red House museum the council are to keep the museum open, and are to  set up a working party to discuss the running of all museums in Kirklees.
I am looking into starting a group for the friends of Red House museum like Oakwell Hall they are going to help us set up the group.

And Richard Wilcocks welcomes the news on the Brontë Parsonage Blog.