Corn Exchange not closing (Ipswich Liberal Democrats)

Ipswich Liberal Democrats <info@ipswichlibdems.org.uk>

Corn Exchange not closing

January 19, 2009 4:58 PM

Lib Dem Leader coined the term 'Ipswich's Village Hall' for our Corn Exchange. It will remain open under the Lib Dems

Many of you will recall Ipswich Lib Dems campaigning to keep the Corn Exchange open. At that time our present leader, Andrew Cann, was still a Labour Party member actively campaigning against their plan to close it. That was the last straw for Andrew who joined the Liberal Democrats to support 'Ipswich's Town Hall' as he called it

Last week the Borough Council announced a review of the management of the Corn Exchange but rest-assured it is certainly not closing.

As present many of you who visit the Corn Exchange will not it is quite well manned at all times regardless of whether the Grand Hall or Robert Cross hall are in use. This sort of manning costs the Borough £500,000 a year. The plan is to review these costs in order to reduce the bill by about £200,000 whilst keeping the Cinema open and the Grand Hall available for evening events. Use of the Robert Cross Hall is being reviewed however. There are a number of new facilities that have been opened recently by the Borough so it is hoped all can still get access to good facilities whilst making this saving.

Of course we would rather grow our way out of this problem by having the Corn Exchange booked solid with events paying towards the upkeep of the building. This is not the case however and bookings have tailed off somewhat particularly as the recession bites. The way forward we are reviewing does seem to offer the best medium term solution for keeping our village hall open whilst keeping costs down. Longer term we have hopes to see a refurbishment inside the building to make the space more even friendly and bring the building into more use for the community. However in a recession it is unrealistic to do that at this point.