WARRINGTON Borough Council spent more than £61,000 hiring external venues this year while the Parr Hall and Walton Hall were closed for refurbishment.
This was revealed by council leader Ian Marks in response to questions from a councillor.
During the same period, the council received £14,622 from hiring rooms and catering – mainly at The Pyramid Centre.
The questions were asked by Coun Linda Dirir, (right) who said it was vital the council supported Walton Hall and the Parr Hall during difficult financial times.
She asked for a breakdown of the number of in-house conferences, meetings, away days and other events which required a leisure facility over the last four years.
Coun Dirir also wanted to know how many involved Walton Hall or the Parr Hall and how many involved other venues, where they were, what the events were and what was the cost to the council on a year-by-year basis of hiring these external venues.
Coun Marks said he could only answer the questions in part. But he made no apology for this as it had already required a great deal of officer time to provide answers and a great deal more would be required to provide a full response which would be supplied later, in writing.
He told the councillor: “It is your prerogative to ask the question but I just hope you will think the outcome justifies the cost.”
In the meantime, he said, he could say that in 2009-10, the council used the three council venues for 439 events – 408 at the Pyramid, 14 at the Parr Hall and 31 at Walton Hall.
The lower figures at the Parr Hall and Walton Hall arose from the fact that both were closed for refurbishment for part of the time.
Total income for the year from council room hire and catering at the venues was £58,697.
So far this year, there had been 224 bookings at the Pyramid and three at Walton Hall. The Parr Hall had remained closed for refurbishment.
From April 1 to September 28, a total of £61,124 had been spent by the council on the use of external venues.
The Parr Hall refurbishment had now been completed and the council intended to promote it much more actively than in the past.
He hoped the Walton Hall advisory group would come up with some ideas for making better use of Walton Hall.
Council spends £61,000 hiring halls
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Former Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Patron Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
3 Comments
“439 events – 408 at the Pyramid, 14 at the Parr Hall and 31 at Walton Hall.” Have we got ANOTHER member of the council who needs a maths lesson???? Or are our councillors in the habit of just accepting any old figures given to them by equally numerically challenged council officers without even bothering to apply basic mental arithmetic to them?? Slightly worrying prospect, that.
Why should it be so difficult to answer Cll Dirir’s questions? surely this information should have been readily available?
You’d have thought so, wouldn’t you. Just a question of counting and adding up the invoices. Ah, counting and adding up. I think I’ve just found the “difficulty”.