25th February 2010 Protect Bishops’ House - Public Meeting- Minutes

John Brown- Chair of the meeting
Opens the meeting and welcome all those in attendance.

Kim Streets- Director of Learning and Knowledge at Museums Sheffield
Kim began by explaining the complicated way in which Museums Sheffield receives its funding. Half is a grant from the council and the other half is from the Department for Culture.
The grant from the council pays for the running of the building and staff wages.
The funds from the Department for Culture pay for learning activities etc.
Museums Sheffield is committed to the future of Bishops House and the building is central to the portfolio. Kim advised they are very happy to work with local people for the foreseeable future and want to find a pragmatic way of saving money. Museums Sheffield is open to seeing what the future holds for the house and is looking for solutions.

Dave Holt- Representing Friends of Bishops House
Dave feels very passionately that it is the poor management skills of Museums Sheffield that has equated in the short fall in funding and felt the council made the running of the city’s museums work on a similar budget. Dave feels the CCTV and new signs around the building have made a real difference. He was very unhappy with the actions of Museums Sheffield, especially moving exhibitions away from Bishops’ House.

Nick Robinson- Representing Friends of Bishops House
Nick felt the building has been taken for granted. He is now bringing together a “google group” to keep interested people up to date. Being short of money, he feels that there needs to be increase in numbers rather than funding cuts. To do this is through preserving public access, maintain the building, improve merchandise, encourage wildlife and links with Heeley city farm. There is a need for greater publicity as it is currently under promoted.

Meg Munn MP
Meg was first made aware of the possible threats to Bishops’ House by an email that was sent to her office. She knew that the future of Bishops' House was an issue of much public concern whatever the truth of the situation regarding funding. As some one who grew up in the area and as local MP Meg feels Bishops’ House is an important building that should be protected and supported. It therefore seemed that it would be a positive step to hold a public meeting locally both to clarify what the situation is and to get a better idea of what support there is for a more active group of residents interested in Bishops' House.

Kim Streets
In response to a comment made by Dave Holt regarding exhibitions; Kim advised that the reason exhibitions had moved to Western Park was due to higher visitor numbers. Of course the argument is that by moving exhibitions away from Bishops House will in turn reduce the number of visitors.

Members of the public raised the following points:
It was highlighted that back in 2008 a s106 agreement was made regarding planning permission on Denmark Road. It was agreed that when the funds were received it should be allocated to fencing at Bishops’ House Garden. The funds have only been received.

A suggestion was made to rotate exhibitions between Bishops House and Weston Park which create more visitors for both and people from all parts of the city can visit the exhibitions.

There were many ideas and plans put forward such as archaeological digs and links to Heeley City farm as ways of increasing visitor numbers.

One member of the audience felt that if the house was located in another part of the city it would receive a greater amount of funding and support.

One woman, expressed the opinion that Bishops’ House is a piece of history in itself and was not merely a museum. For it to be classed together with other museums in the city was an error. She also felt that there was a lack of knowledge in the area surrounding Bishops’ House as to its value and importance. She suggested Museums Sheffield look to English Heritage for funding.

It was made clear that the funding cut was not merely 2.5 per cent, but was actually 10 per cent over the next three years. In light of this, the audience member felt it was important to look long term to solve the funding issue.

Many felt let down by Museums Sheffield, and that a lack of forward thinking with regards to funding and grants had resulted in the current situation.

There was slight disagreement of who was at fault financially, as some felt that it was the council, whilst others felt the blame rested wholly on Museums Sheffield.

Agreements were made that as a collective, all interested parties will work well together to protect and support Bishops’ House.

Meg Munn MP closed the meeting
Meg thanked everyone for attending and expressed hope that people will be able to work together in the future to safe guard Bishops’ House.

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