Page 2909 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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work it needs a mix of things in it. It needs to have a buzz. I am concerned that in going down the route that the government is going we will end up without that mix, without that buzz.
I am also concerned that the consultation that was done—the last lot of consultation that was done by Purdon—was somewhat farcical. I went along to a couple of the consultations. They had to start off saying, “No, the Fitters Workshop is not part of this.” The people who came to those consultations—I do not know that it was a majority, but it was certainly a significant minority of them—really felt that was totally the wrong idea. If that consultation was to be consultation that was going to be respected by the community, it had to be consultation about the issues which were important to the community. Leaving out what would seem to be the most important issue to the community at the time was just the wrong way to do consultation. It was making it a farce.
The bus depot made it quite clear in the inquiry that the government’s proposals, will, they believe, be significantly negative as far as they are concerned. This is something which should be teased out from a proper planning perspective, a proper master planning process, so there is some way of accommodating it. I think the situation is that the bus depot have the anticipation that it will stay where it is.
I would like to see some solution. I know I am sounding a bit Pollyanna-like in saying that there is a win-win solution, but I still believe there is. The solution that has been looked at with Megalo moving into the Fitters Workshop is one that would require a significant additional building to be built—plus, in effect, another building to be built inside the Fitters Workshop for Megalo. I still think there is a possibility for Megalo to use the money that has been allocated in effect to build an entire purpose-built building, which could be, from the point of view of what they are doing, even easier to use. They would still be in the situation where they could have exhibitions in the Fitters Workshop, which I assume would be near them. Other people could have exhibitions in them.
It was interesting to hear Ms Burch read out the letter from the Glassworks. I also, of course, received that letter. Because the Glassworks did not actually say “Megalo in the Fitters Workshop”, I assumed that that was not what they were saying—that they were saying that they would like to see Megalo in the precinct but not in the Fitters Workshop, given how they wrote the letter. It is really interesting that you can interpret things in many different ways.
It is clear, though, that everyone thinks Megalo would be a good fit within the arts precinct. Everyone wishes Megalo well and would like to see it appropriately housed as soon as possible. So I think—
Ms Burch: As soon as possible?
MS LE COUTEUR: Ms Burch, there happens to be an ACAT appeal. What we are doing here is not going to stop that. What we are doing here is effectively a side part, given the timing. I do commend my amendments to the Assembly. I am not confident that they will be supported. In fact, I am probably fairly confident that they will not be supported.
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