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It was reported in Waltham Forest Guardian that the Council has been forced to put money back into William Morris Gallery since it now no longer has the expertise available to complete a lottery bid. The council’s £56,000 savings meant Peter Cormack, a world expert on William Morris, was forced into redundancy and the gallery and Vestry House Museum are now only open part-time.Council papers show that they have had to invest a further £133,000 for additional jobs - £35,000 of which will pay for a consultant for six months to apply for the Heritage Lottery Grant because, as cabinet documents admit, the “expertise not available within department so bid unlikely to be successful”.Peter Cormack started the Heritage Lottery bid - and clearly had the expertise to do this and more - it seems shameful that they should have to now employ a consultant on a temporary basis and pay £35,000 for them for six months.Read the article in full online.Meanwhile - a further cost is being incurred at the gallery - as there is now no-one with expertise to give guided tours of the gallery, Blue Badge Guides have been called in… cost currently unknown!
Thursday 28 February, 5pm, Town Square, Walthamstow.Come and join local government workers to protest against further cuts of services and staff in Waltham Forest.Meet in front of the main Library at 5pm then march to the Town Hall to lobby the council meeting where budget cuts will be voted.Download the Antiscrap Flyer about the event.
Rumours are surfacing that the council announced at it’s 22 January 2008 cabinet meeting that it had ‘found’ at total of £133,000 additional funds for the gallery and museum for extra staffing, and is putting some of that towards a project officers post specifically to work on the Heritage Lottery bid.Campaigners have advised from the outset that the council’s original cuts posed a serious threat to a Heritage Lottery bid application which had been partially completed. Campaigners have also said repeatedly that the council should be investing in these services - not cutting them.We will try and find out more and post here when we do.It does beg the question - have staff unnecessarily dismissed? The council have lost a highly respected, experienced and world renowned curator due to their restructuring, cost saving plans. Could this have been avoided? Watch this space for more information.
Saturday 2 February 2008, 1-3pm, Copermill Lane Bring a book to swap, or win one as a prize! Children’s activities include drawings to decorate the windows of the former St James Street Library. See http://stjamesstlibrary.wordpress.com or The Year of Reading website for more details.
The story appears in The Londonist this week.