Despite promises that there would be extensive consultation over the idea, Hampshire County Council could press ahead with plans for a ‘discovery centre’ in Aldershot.

This again raises questions over the future of the West End Centre arts venue, which was threatened last summer with being moved into such a facility.

GetHampshire has discovered that almost a year since a packed Save Our Westy public meeting showed politicians the strength of feeling surrounding the arts centre, the county has formed a group to take the discovery centre plan forward.

The council had been planning to close the popular Westy building — a former school — and move the services it provides, along with those of the town’s library, into the Princes Hall theatre building.

A new shell would be built around the building to make room for the additional services the council hoped to locate there.

The much-loved Westy, in Queens Road, which the council claimed was no longer fit for purpose, would be sold, possibly for office use.

Outrage

The secret plans sparked outrage last July and the News Group’s Save Our Westy petition quickly attracted more than 4,000 signatures.

However, the county councillor responsible for deciding what happens to the venue and the library says a discovery centre is still “very much on the cards”.

Cllr Margaret Snaith, Hampshire’s executive mem-ber for recreation and heritage  said surveys of the buildings and with service users had already been conducted and claimed the council had a “very clear idea of what people in Aldershot want”.

She said the process of asking people what they think of existing services had been ongoing since the public meeting last September.

However, Peter Aimies, head of communities at Rushmoor Borough Council — which owns the Princes Hall — said he expects surveys to be issued in September or October.

Research

As one of the borough officers involved in drawing up the strategy, he says the newly formed group is merely looking at existing market research at the moment.

The group tasked with creating the strategy is made up of county officers and councillors and their borough counterparts.

Cllr Snaith said: “The work is progressing quite well actually, because we’ve formed this group and it is definitely pushing things forward.

“The group is taking all of the elements of what’s happening in Rushmoor and Aldershot, including things like the theatre, museums, libraries and of course the Westy, and it’s coming together nicely.

“I wouldn’t say that we have anything absolutely definite yet but the officers and politicians from Hampshire County Council are meeting very regularly now with the officers and political people in Rushmoor, really just to discuss the way forward.

“We’ve formed this partnership group now, so we have one authority that can work on its own and I think this is what was missing before.

“Although we had good relations with the council at Rushmoor we weren’t always singing from the same hymn sheet.”

'Safe'

Last August, Cllr Snaith promised that the West End Centre would be safe until 2010 and vowed to take all residents’ opinions into account.

She promised that people living in the town and users of the arts centre would be the first to know of any changes in the situation.

Cllr Snaith restated that promise this week and said she would let the News know as soon as the council had any firm plans.

“There is so much involved in all of this but it’s not something that we rushed at,” she added.

“We said we were taking our time over this because we wanted to get it right and the results from our surveys are still coming in.

“We want to find out exactly what the people of Rushmoor want and we have a very good opportunity, I think, to get it right.”

Action

Cllr Snaith said it was important for people to realise that the council was acting on the issue.

However, she said: “We are looking at a new discovery centre for Aldershot and that is something that is very much on the cards but where this will be is still very much in talks.

“This is the kind of thing that we’re talking about at the moment. We haven’t gone quiet, we haven’t gone away.

“All sorts of surveys have been going on and we have a very good idea of what the people of Aldershot want.”

Mr Aimies said the process of finding out what people thought of existing services and whether there were others they would like to see in the borough had yet to begin.

He said: “We are working with the county on what they propose to do which is a wider look at the cultural strategy and that will be for Rushmoor but with a focus on Aldershot.”

Meetings

He said a number of officer and member meetings had taken place to move the framework forward and said data on the services was being collated.

Mr Aimies said: “We’re looking at all of the market research that already exists, things like the best value indicators, customer satisfaction surveys, footfall, all of those things.

“That’s all being pulled together and that will give us a proper view of the services we already have and how they are performing.

“Then, probably around October or September time, we will be looking to do the consultation with the residents and that will pull together what we put forward as options.”

He said that when surveys are circulated they are likely to ask people what they think about things like the current level of staffing, whether services could improve, whether there are any new facilities they would like to see and what they think of the group’s initial ideas.

He said the process was designed to “give a wider view of where we are going with culture in Rushmoor”.

Campaign

Tom Stevens — a musician who organised a demonstration during the Save our Westy campaign — said he had not been aware of any public consultation.

“If they have carried out a consultation then they have clearly not talked to everybody as neither I, nor anybody I know, has heard of it,” he said.

“The council have clearly not done a broad enough sweep of people, if indeed they have carried a consultation out.”

Mr Stevens, who taught music technology to students at the Sixth Form College, Farnborough, said everything that was promised at the public meeting should still apply.

“Cllr Snaith listened then, or at least she appeared to,” he said.

“The Westy is still very important to a large amount of people, whether they are young or old.”

Mr Stevens, a guitarist with local band and campaigners for the Westy Brunette Mindcontrol, added: “People still want to keep the Westy and nothing has changed with that.

“It seems like a year on that the council are going back on what they promised.”

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