Mareel - Cinema & Music Venue

[Mutley]

For the Record: From The Shetland News Website. Any comments on this?

 

Mareel not a priority

 

4 April 2008

 

I have today signed Councillor Duncan's motion to review the proposed SIC investment in Mareel. The simple reason is that at present we cannot afford over £4m of public money to help build it, nor could we afford the annual subsidy if it went ahead as planned. This is very clear when we look at the council's capital and revenue spending projections for the next few years. My priorities on capital projects are the new Anderson High School (the costs of which I wish to reduce), the new school and care centre for Yell, the very urgent replacement of the Whalsay ferry terminal and a new primary school for Lerwick. These are essential. Mareel is not. On the revenue spending side I will back education and social care before arts centres or leisure and

recreation. I made this clear during my election campaign.

 

I know many people have worked long and hard on the Mareel project and they'll be very disappointed if the council decides not to put any more money into it. I don't dispute that it would be a fine thing to have, despite its monumentally ugly design. I wish them luck in their search for other, private, sources of funds to make up the shortfall.

 

The good news is that the (equally ugly, in my opinion) new Anderson High School design already includes several of Mareel's ingredients: the school hall will seat about the same number of people as the proposed Mareel auditorium and the architect tells me audiences of several hundred more will be able to see the double-sided stage from the very large main concourse, or atrium; the hall can easily show films (as can the fisheries college, the Garrison and the auditorium at the new museum); there will also be two recording studios and plenty of rehearsal space, along with vast areas suitable for displaying works of art.

 

My suggestion is that once the new community school is completed the council should donate the 1862 Anderson Educational Institute building to Shetland Arts, to provide offices, recording studios, rehearsal space and, most importantly, teaching areas for Shetland College's music courses. Yes, it's a listed building; no, it's not purpose-built; but the council's budget problems, already acute, have been made worse by the stock market crash and for the time being we'll just have to make the best of what we've got.

 

After some 45 years' involvement in Shetland's artistic and literary scene, Ihope I won't be condemned as a philistine because of this decision. Like other councillors who've signed Mr Duncan's motion, I hope rather to be regarded as a realist who recognises that a community of 22,000 people livingon some small Atlantic islands cannot expect to have the same cultural facilities as city folk. What we do have here is already pretty impressive for a place of this size. Compare the facilities in Wick, Thurso, Stornoway, Ullapool or Fort William and you may see what I mean.

 

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Wills

Independent Councillor for Lerwick South

jonathan.wills@shetland.gov.uk

[Mutley]

Gavin Morgan's story from The Shetland News website dated 5th April: "Mareel advert might cause a stink†states:

 

"But councillor Allison Duncan has pledged to see the plans “blown into oblivion†and seven councillors have signed his notice of motion to drop the Mareel, which will be debated at a full council meeting on 14 May".

 

Unless my arithmetic is wrong, I make that 8 Councillors out of 22 at this stage who are against Mareel and it will only take another 4 of the remaining Councillors to stop the project in its tracks, regardless of the debate at the end of next month. Any idea who has signed this petition?

[Carlos]

Re Jonathan Wills' letter I would see some opportunities to combine some of the facilities proposed for Mareel with the new AHS, the educational/rehearsal stuff could fit, and I imagine the school hall could be a kind of upgraded Garrison for occasional film / concert events.

 

I don't think it would be able to be the same kind of facility overall that Mareel is proposed to be, and I don't think it would be anywhere near feasible to have it open for music gigs, and I can't see where adding to the AHS brief is going to match up to reducing the AHS costs.

 

If Mareel is blocked, then adding to the AHS facilities is an option to look at, but I think in the end we would pay 50% of the costs for 25% of the facility.

[Mag]

I agree with Carlos. There is no point in duplicating facilities in Mareel and the new AHS, it would work better for the AHS pupils to have access to Mareel for music education and concerts, rather than 600 rocks fans trying to attend a concert (with bar??) in the new AHS. The new AHS could make huge savings by not duplicating facilities in Clickimin or the proposed Mareel project, and by designing for the current number of pupils instead of for 25% expansion.

[Jordan]

The AHS might initially look sensible from a school pupils perspective, but ultimately fails to take account of everyone else in the community who wants to access music education facilities, go to a concert in a proper venue, and go to the cinema.

 

Would every person wanting to perform/rehearse/record in the AHS have to be disclosure checked first? If so, who would pay for and administer the procedure? Would the school be open after 5pm and in the holidays? If so, who would be checking that the facilities were being used properly? Who would be paid to do this? Who would pay for the cost of the use of school utilities like electricity? How would they work this out? School planned events would also clash with potential concerts, film showings etc.

 

The Garrison, NAFC, New Museum and Archives, etc: these are not cinemas. They are lecture halls and are only available at limited times. They simply cannot offer the same service a decent cinema does.

 

Using the new AHS as an alternative is a half baked idea at best. If it did come to be, the state of things would be no different from what they are now.

[Carlos]

Of course we could suggest that an AHS site at Clickamin with a 3 way share of sports / arts / venue facilities in 3 separate but inter-linked buildings might be a more workable solution overall.....

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks to those who pointed out the capacity of Mareel,, I was too blind to see it.

 

Something else I can't see, and maybe somebody could explain this:

 

320 seated, or 600 standing, just isn't an audience capacity that will be any use for bringing big acts to Shetland. Unless the ticket prices are going to be astronomical.

Take PUSA for instance. If they do honour the demand for them to come to Lerwick, surely they will be expecting a decent sized crowd. I would have thought 1000 would be an absolute minimum.

Most likely I've missed some obvious point, but I thought attracting big visiting acts was one of the reasons so many people are happy to support this venture. It's certainly one of the reasons I was in favour of it.

[JAStewart]

I would have thought 1000 would be an absolute minimum.

 

You thought wrong, certainly in the Presidents case. In three weeks I jet off to Spring and Airbrake in Belfast, a venue that has a capacity of just 500, and this is the second time PUSA will play here in two years, with the following night, a gig in a 1300 stander venue.

 

Now, obviously this is just one band, but it just shows you. PUSA are a world famous band. PUSA have sold over 4 million CD's. PUSA can play and sell out big venues. But do they always do it? No, maybe the like the variation, maybe they like small gigs. Or maybe they just want to play in Belfast and S+A is just a good venue.

[Carlos]

I imagine that while a building with space for a 1000 ticket gig would be great to have 2 or 3 times a year, the compromises on fitting it into a space that is somewhere near break even in running costs through the year were too high.

 

Seems to be 3 camps? Mareel is too big, Mareel is too small, Mareel is a decent compromise?

[WiiMan]

Seems to be 3 camps? Mareel is too big, Mareel is too small, Mareel is a decent compromise?

 

Yes I have watched many films in the garrison and it does the job fine. The only complaint is the chairs. Mind you they could afford some good “stressless†leather recliners with massage function for £2000 each. That’s only £400000 for a 200 seated luxury cinema. Now what could they spend the other £8.9M on??

 

I think Nic was on the right track with this idea. It sounds like a good compromise to me. If we're going to have a compromise in any case then one that doesn't cost £9.3 million sounds good to me.

 

I was told that there were plans to put new seats into the Garrison but that this plan was scrapped in the desperate scrabble for dosh for Mareel.

[Carlos]

Does £400k for seats/upgrading and maybe £150k for projector/screen/sound equipment, to have the Garrison as a better part time cinema, with little improvement for anything else, sound like value for money?

 

I've no idea on seat costs, but I think they would need to be quite a bit cheaper than that to go that way.....

[WiiMan]

Does £400k for seats/upgrading and maybe £150k for projector/screen/sound equipment.......I've no idea on seat costs, but I think they would need to be quite a bit cheaper than that to go that way.....

 

I think the cost of what was proposed was less than £100,000. Don't think they were going for Nic's Stressless recliners!!!

[Mag]

With films available on DVD now-a-days, the advantage of cinema over DVD at home is either that they have new releases or that it is a social occasion - you go with friends and discuss the film afterwards over a drink or popcorn or whatever. Problem with the Garrison is no room for a cafe/bar, so no social factor.

[Frances144]

They could buy loads of those massage chairs from Chris Hodge - I tried one, it was fantastic!

[Caeser]

With films available on DVD now-a-days, the advantage of cinema over DVD at home is either that they have new releases or that it is a social occasion - you go with friends and discuss the film afterwards over a drink or popcorn or whatever. Problem with the Garrison is no room for a cafe/bar, so no social factor.

 

£10 million for a 'social factor'.

 

At what point does reality sink in here?

 

Projected cash flow alcohol sales of £250,000, or £5000 per week!!!

 

So when does the drink get sold then? Is it when you go to the cinema with the bairns, (six pints of lager and some popcorn please?) waiting for the dance hall (I'll have six bottles of blue WKD and a basin to spew into when I'm doing Diane Leylands new dance routine) or before making the next low cost movie! (Lights, music, action - Oh and four brandy and ports, please for the film crew)

 

You really cannot make it up!

 

Maybe we are going to be having a giant piss up at the weekend instead. I wonder if the projected movie masses will be happy attending when the North Star party goers are getting s**t faced!

 

We have really lost a complete grip of proceedings here.

 

Why can someone at Shetland Arts not stand up and say, really our Mareel cash flow is rubbish, it cannot pay and it will cost our community loads of dosh for each year the doors are open, but hey we have £500 million to piss along the wall, so why not our pet project.

 

At least then you could respect them for their honesty.

 

Just now well...... Come on Da flea and Bressay Willsie - pull the plug - you know you want too.