Broadfield House to Close

[nigel benson]

                    HELP SAVE BROADFIELD HOUSE GLASS MUSEUM
                                             YOUR VOICE COUNTS

Hello all,

If you have been wondering whether or not to sign the petition, or haven't yet and would like to - this is the last weekend when it will be possible.

Please sign if you haven't already - www.gopetition.com/online/24751.html

Also perhaps consider emailing your own contacts to sign, if they agree with you once they've checked out what is said.


Many, many thanks, Nigel

[flyboy90]

Good write up in the Stourbridge news etc tonight.Dont relax your grip keep it up!! petition handing over tomorrow
lets keep our fingers crossed!!
J.

[Angela B]

How many names were there on the petition when it was handed over?

[Oxbridge Fairs]

We delivered the returned paper copies to Barbara Beadman last Thursday and the official figure from the Friends for both those and the online petition is 6,120 signatures of which 62% came from the West Midlands. They were handed over to Dudley council last night.

Paul.

[Anne]

That's a very good total, Paul, and the West Midlands signatures % is extremely significant as the council will have to explain to their own voters why they are not listening to the people who voted them into office!

[aa]

My email to Cllr Caunt on this matter was deleted without being read, according to the read notification I have just had back.
Nice!   

Councillor Caunt is not the only person who deletes emails without being read. Sally Orton of Dudley Council appears to operate along similar lines. An email that I sent on 16th February, copied to her among others, has just been deleted by her without being read, today on the 3rd April. Does anyone know of any reason why she should be around six weeks behind in reading her emails? Has she been on extended leave or been ill, perhaps, which would of course be understandable? Or should we just assume that her workload has been so heavy that she has been unable to cope? I'm not sure that I would be very happy if someone in my organisation was so behind on reading their emails, but we are a commercial enterprise as opposed to a council executive, so our expectations may be different.....

[Angela B]

Congratulations to everyone concerned with the petition - those are excellent numbers and there will be no excuse for the Council to ignore it.

[Janet H]

Hi just updating everyone on handing the petition in, I attended the council meeting and councillor Tyler spoke passionately about local people having their say about closing the museum and saving the glass heritage.

http://www.stourbridgenews.co.uk/search/4264690.Broadfield_campaigners_slam_council__gag_/


 Since mid February I have been involved in the campaign locally. The save our glass heritage campaign has gained momentum appearing on tv, radio and in the local papers. On 27th February the BBC came to Broadfield House and filmed for 2 hours, Barbara,Allistair our glass designer and I spoke.

 On 20 March we had a local community event attended by MPs and coucillors, as well as the Chairman and President of the British Legion in Kingswinford. Our forthcoming event is a Spring Concert to raise awareness in the local area to save our glass heritage. Please send letters of support for the campaign to Broadfield House Museum, we can display them on the night. Our resident Glass Designer Allistair Malcolm will display his work. Once again dignatories will be invited and of course the press. A local school that has made glass hands will also be displaying their work.

http://saveourglassheritage.blogspot.com/

http://www.friendsofbroadfieldhouse.co.uk/

http://www.dudley.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/museums--galleries/glass-museum

http://www.glassassociation.org.uk/News/broadfield.html

[Anne]

Hi Janet, welcome to the board and thank you for the update. 

Can I ask what date the Spring Concert will be so people know when to get their letters in by?

This might also be a good time to remind UK citizens and ex-pats of the other petition to Downing Street about the proposals for Broadfield House:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/savebroadfield/

[Janet H]

Hi there Ann!

Yes our Spring Concert is on Saturday 9th May 2009 in a lovely church just behind Broadfield House Glass Museum. The Reverend has been most supportive, as are the community in Kingswinford! Local shops and businesses have come together.

It will be great to receive cards and letters - so we can display them - please mark them spring concert and send to Broadfield - we can pick them up.

After Broadfield winning 2 awards we can keep positive and look forward to our Spring Concert!

Thank you
Janet

[cfosterk]

Forgive me for pointing this out.....

15,000 visitors and an annual saving to the council of £120,000 to £140,000 - seems like a no brainer to me.

Do you really think the venue merits saving if it can only attract 400 pairs of feet a week??

[nigel benson]

                        PLEASE HELP BROADFELD HOUSE GLASS MUSEUM
                                                  YOUR VOICE COUNTS

I find your comment quite extraordinary coming from, I assume, a glass enthusiate. However, maybe you want to just stir things up. 

To me it is amazing that a council could envisage downsizing any museum that houses the heritage of the area it represents, however I am realistic enough to know that finances cannot be ignored, particularly in current times. Having said that, most council’s would give their eye teeth to have a museum that gives them access to a world stage, if only for the civic pride that it would engender. Unfortunately, Dudley MBC have a parochial attitude toward this world renowned museum that gives them direct access to tourism – part of their stated aim for the Stourbridge Glass Quarter. An aim that re-occurs throughout their own documents.

The question I believe you, and they, should be asking is, 'how can this resource be best used to advantage?'

Importantly, as a direct answer to your thought, the publicity that this ill advised decision has created is more than the council has given the museum over its entire life and has resulted in a huge upturn in visitor numbers, proving the point of the protestors. Visitor figures for January 2009 more than doubled the previous January, and all reports say that this upturn has been continued. 

Perhaps instead of using an uninformed publicity department to act as the interface between the council and the protestors in order to ignore them, it might be a better use of that resource to actually publicise this award winning museum that is so important to both the local heritage and to the history of glass worldwide.

It is not always the bottom line that makes a decision correct. Often it is more about how to make best use of a resource. In this case for very little money invested into the correct publicity the resource could show a much greater return.

Lastly, using your 'bottom line' logic, one could take the highly manipulated Red House Cone visitor figures and find that that site should also be closed as being uneconomic - particularly as it houses a Grade I listed building that is in dire need of repair, making the site a liability financially speaking. So, should the council be allowed to let one of only four cones left in the UK fall down?

The bottom line isn't always the way to analyse the problem IMHO.

Nigel

[Janet H]

Dear All,

Thank you Nigel! Yes, as residents of Kingswinford we value our heritage and our Stourbridge glass collection, which is the envy of the world. This is our area's identity and the whole community and surrounding areas use the facility of Broadfield House and its working glass studio.

We welcome any improvement on the facility but we require firm assurances that the Stourbridge glass collection and archives are kept together. The local area of Stourbridge and Kingswinford have requested a special meeting with Dudley Council.

No one has the right to take away the people's heritage and identity from them!

Janet

[cfosterk]

Nigel,

I was being a little bombastic!!

My comments were directed at the venue, and not the collection - which which is of international importance. My view is that a new line of attack might be more productive - surely this is central governments responsibility?

This might offer an opportunity to house the collection in a custom-built venue? Central government might wish to stimulate the economy through capital expenditure programmes - just a thought...

Perhaps if we aim high we might reach the stars??

[jal]

  Over a month since the last message.   Does anyone know what's happening now.   I am informed the study is being run by an anti Broadfield person,  but have not heard of any "glass" person being invited to join the study.
John L. Sussex.