Issue - meetings

The Arts Council England (ACE) Museums Estates Development (MEND) funded project (£974,000) to support the backlog of maintenance issues at the Russell-Cotes is progressing as follows:

·       Replacement of environmental plant and machinery has been completed or commissioned.

o   Phase 1 of the replacement of all mechanical plant for the boilers and air handling units in the historic house have been completed and commissioned. Temporary air handling has been supplied to the Galleries to maintain environmental conditions for GIS.

o   Phase 2 replacing the Air Handling units for the Galleries started on 16 October 2023.

o   Phase 3 replacing plant in the Modern Wing will start in January 2024 and require the closure of the Museum for 4 weeks.

·       The tenders for the restoration of the Conservatory are under consideration.  However, the tenders are significantly higher (£100,000) than budgeted and the project cannot continue without reallocation of budget.

·       Drainage work on the party drains has been carried out in the Royal Bath Hotel by Wessex Water and has been successful so far.

·       CCTV work has yet to be commissioned.

The Museum Manager presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'C' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Committee was advised that the Arts Council England (ACE) Museums Estates Development (MEND) funded project (£974,000) to support the backlog of maintenance issues at the Russell-Cotes was progressing as follows:

·       Replacement of environmental plant and machinery had been completed or commissioned.

o   Phase 1 of the replacement of all mechanical plant for the boilers and air handling units in the historic house had been completed and commissioned. Temporary air handling had been supplied to the Galleries to maintain environmental conditions for GIS.

o   Phase 2 replacing of the Air Handling units for the Galleries started on 16 October 2023.

o   Phase 3 replacement of the plant in the Modern Wing would start in January 2024 and would require the closure of the Museum for 4 weeks.

·       The tenders for the restoration of the Conservatory were under consideration.  However, the tenders were significantly higher (£100,000) than budgeted for and the project could not continue without reallocation of budget.

·       Drainage work on the party drains had been carried out in the Royal Bath Hotel by Wessex Water and had been successful so far.

·       CCTV work had yet to be commissioned.

The work was being carried out in phases so that the museum could stay open. Phase 1 was confirmed to be completed,

Phase 2 was ongoing and on schedule.

For phase 3, the museum would close for 4 weeks for work to be completed.

Regarding the Conservatory, staff were working with surveyors and architects for designs.

The Museum Manager asked the committee for support to rework the budget, as the drainage work was largely sorted and not do CCTV.

RECOMMENDED/RESOLVED that :

1. The Management Committee agrees to pause further work on drainage and CCTV in order to focus all available funds on the restoration of the conservatory, which is the priority, given its condition and importance and to ensure the retention of the ACE MEND funding;
2. The Management Committee agrees to increase the project funding to £1,015,000 by utilizing £41,000 of additional funding from an insurance claim, fundraising and reserves.

Voting: Unanimous