Mareel - Cinema & Music Venue

[Guest Anonymous]

 

I'm not against the venue per-se, it just seems, perhaps, like all the feasibility studies suit the purpose of they that commisioned them, a common principal, alledgedly.

 

However, if someone could give me a signed assurance that this venue would not cost anybody a penny, ever, i would be all for it!

Shetland has a huge portfolio of 'property investments', which need financial maintenance already, the future promises to bring more costs all round already, top-heavy demographic and all that, show us the return on the investment.

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head Njugle - I don't think anyone is against the principle of this (apart from the publicans maybe) and everyone agrees that a cinema and music venue would indeed be a very fine thing to have - but not at the expense of the public purse. The one thing I do keep asking myself is that if it isn't going to lose any money then why hasn't anyone seized on it as a business opportunity before now? The bottom line is that we can't speak about having to make cuts and close schools on one hand and support as grand a project as this on the other if it indeed turns out that the Council is going to have to bail it out in the longer run - no matter how good it might be to have.

[Guest Anonymous]

ARTS CENTRE'S FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES

 

The 5.4 Million An Lanntair Arts Centre in Stornoway is to receive FURTHER funding up to £30 000 from the Western Isles Council to ease revenue difficulties. It is understood that they are faxing a six figure deficit.

 

......An Lanntair is also to submit to the council a viable business plan by Feb 8th that is acceptable to the Highlands Special Transitional programme and to Westeren Isles Enterprise

 

Taken from Stornoway today 13/3/06

 

And yet all we seem to hear in Shetalnd is how good its doing....Funny that eh?

[McFly]

The point i was making is that we are already paying for several "well managed cultural resources", maybe they should be sold in favour of the venue then?

 

I'm not sure what cultural resources you're referring to, but yes maybe consolidation would be an option?

 

What if we get a shoddily built venue, a la scottish parliement?

 

That's a bit defeatist is it not Njugle? Why do you automatically assume this project is going to be badly managed?

 

Even though not all of the community will not benefit from it, and we are facing a social care critical mass which is destined to worsen in the next ten years? How high should the cost of living be in Shetland exactly?

 

I don't benefit much from hospitals or leisure centres, should I not bother paying for them? Seriously though, the proportion of the community that benefits is surely determined by the programs run at the centre. These could be widely inclusive, or not, depending on the effectiveness of the management. I don't really see how this is an argument against the concept of building it.

 

Like the Bonhoga perhaps?

 

The Bonhoga is absolutely nothing like the venue we're discussing. It's not at all suitable for any of the purposes this new centre is intended for.

 

the Lemon Tree had funding for the first five years then it had to be self supporting and you could tell the differance in the programming more tribute bands, club nights etc.

 

The Lemon Tree is still supported by Aberdeen City and the Scottish Arts Council. I suppose the quality of their program is open to debate, but I've been along recently and it still seems to be buzzing.

 

But back to the subject in hand what gets me is that there is already an excellent cinema/ music venue in Lerwick called the north star. Ok it needs alot of work doing but anybody who's played there or seen a band there knows it's great,

 

Are you serious?!

I've played there and been there as a spectator countless times, and the place is woefully inadequate as a music venue. The facilities are hopeless! And the building is falling apart at the seams.

[turrifield]

Are you serious?!

I've played there and been there as a spectator countless times, and the place is woefully inadequate as a music venue. The facilities are hopeless! And the building is falling apart at the seams.

 

I've played and spectated at the Northstar too It has a good sized stage, good sized dance floor , loads of elevated seating and a seperate bar I think it's fine I've been in far wrose venues in my time, but yeah it is falling apart.

[peeriebryan]

Are you serious?!

I've played there and been there as a spectator countless times, and the place is woefully inadequate as a music venue. The facilities are hopeless! And the building is falling apart at the seams.

 

I've played and spectated at the Northstar too It has a good sized stage, good sized dance floor , loads of elevated seating and a seperate bar I think it's fine I've been in far wrose venues in my time, but yeah it is falling apart.

I think the North Star is one of the better stages to play north of Aberdeen. However, tthe North Star needs a huge amount of work done to it to make it suitable for anything other than a blootered slesster.

 

A fundemantal problem it suffers from, which is also one of its good points, is the downstairs bar. When you come in, you head downstairs for a dram, which makes the place seem deserted, so puts of a lot o folk (I've come in a couple o times and turned round coz I thought it was empty)

 

Maybe a bar upstairs would help?

 

I'm not sure that the cost of the structural work required to the balcony in order to make it suitable (again) for a cinema would be worth it for a private businessman (i.e. GH)

 

It is in an ideal location though. Where exactly do 'they' propose the new venue to be built?

[Njugle]

At the north ness, just along from the new museum. Where old saga used to be. Doon (former)broons road. (right)Next to the water

[jim-jam]

At the north ness, just along from the new museum. Where old saga used to be. Doon (former)broons road. (right)Next to the water

But we'll all fall in the sea blootered (sic Ice Factory)

[turrifield]

Jim-Jam you've hit one of nails on the head, try to build a night club near the sea and it's no way because everybody will be high on drink 'n' drugs and either fall in the sea or deceide to have a huge game of water polo or something similar resulting in carnage. But, try to build a venue near the sea and it's assumed that the revelers will be about as rowdy has the audience at one of those concerts at the town hall hmmmmmmmmm I don't think so.

[Njugle]

This guest posted in a different section:

 

So the wheel bar and flints actually deserve this backing? my ass

 

CONCERTED effort to bring the curtain down on plans for a new cinema and music venue in Lerwick is to be launched tomorrow night (Wednesday).

 

The Shetland Licensed Trades Association, which represents the islands' publicans, wants to stop the local authority's plans to build a £7 million arts centre. The National Lottery has already committed £2.2 million to the project.

 

The SLTA claim they are speaking for "the silent majority" in the islands who believe the new venue, planned for Lerwick's North Ness, will be a huge drain on public funds. Existing pubs and venues will close and jobs will be lost, they say.

 

However supporters of the plan have asked why the islands' entertainment industry has only started objecting to the plans now, more than a decade after work started on the project.

 

The cinema and music venue has been one of the most contentious issues in Shetland in recent years. Campaigners have argued that while the council has spent millions from its oil reserves on sport and recreation, little has gone to local culture. Detractors question how an island with 22,000 people can support such an ambitious project.

 

On Thursday a new business plan for the new centre will be presented to Shetland Islands Council's services committee, in the hope that this will lead to work starting in time to have it up and running by 2009.

 

The evening before that meeting the SLTA have invited the public to their protest gathering at the Garrison Theatre, which currently serves as the islands' cinema showing popular movies once a month.

 

SLTA treasurer Iain Johnston said a recent survey showed that 600 people went out in Lerwick every weekend, but that the cinema and music venue was basing its business plan on 2,500 customers a week. It would run a café and bar which would be in direct competition to existing businesses, and would cost the council money to keep open.

 

"We are not being party poopers, but there are jobs on the line here. If they get this 2,500 what will we be left with? Absolutely nothing."

 

Mr Johnston works for JW Gray which supplies most of the pubs and clubs in Shetland with wholesale provisions and runs several bars, clubs and hotels itself. "We will most certainly close the North Star and Mooney's Wake, and that would probably affect 17 full and part time staff in the first instance," he said.

 

He claimed the Lerwick Boating Club would have to close because it would lose vital business from the folk festival and the fiddle and accordion festival which keeps it afloat.

 

"We have got that scenario replicated throughout the trade. We are being told time and again by our customers that this is going to threaten their businesses."

 

He said the council was "sneaking their plans in through the back door" and claimed there had been "no consultation" with the local entertainment industry over the issue.

 

However SIC councillor Billy Stove who has backed the cinema and music venue from the plan's inception, said he thought the new cinema and music venue would be complementary to existing businesses in the town.

 

"I've been involved in this for 12 years and now we have finally got it into the council's capital programme folk with a vested interest are coming out to try and stop it," Mr Stove said.

 

"We have no cinema and we have no real concert venue in Shetland and I think it's about time we gave this to the community. I don't see why youngsters have to go away on a boat to the mainland to see a concert when we could have folk coming here."

 

He said the new venue would probably attract more people to the town which would help the local pubs and clubs. "People won't be going to the cinema for the bar," he said.

 

He also pointed out the educational role the new centre would play, sending films and music out to the wider community in more remote parts of Shetland.

[madcow]

It's NOT going to attract more people to the town. We already have films showing at the Garrison and they can't manage to get more than half full most of the time. How's a new venue going to attract more people? Yes, of course it will while its new, but once the novelty has worn off you're left with astronomical running costs and an empty building.

 

It's on the news today that international film box office revenues fell by 9% last year - is that not an indication that cinema is a thing of the past for more and more people?

 

With the availability of DVDs and better bootlegs, why should a family of 5 pay over £20 to sit in the dark for an hour and a half when they can buy a copy for a few quid?

 

I'm not advocating bootlegs, in fact quite the opposite as I want the Garrison to continue with the service they provide, but I am just pointing out a fact of life, that people do not have the money to spend on going out as much as they once did.

 

And its interesting to note that, at a time when the council are once again about to start another round of school closure discussions, that Councillor Billy Stove has publicly stated that the shortfall in running costs will be met by the Education department..... Is he for real???

[Guest Anonymous]

People won't go to the cinema for a bar?. Why put one in then?.

[JustMe]

Listening to all the debates about the council and its strange plans I have decided that there is a feeling of arogance coming from some members who are intent on going ahead with projects when there are certainly questions not yet answered regarding the projects long term viability and its benefits (or otherwise) for the people of Shetland. The alcohol ban, the cctv and the Bressay bridge come to mind.

 

Now we have the music/cinema plans published in the Shetland Times without, so far as I have seen, proper consultation with the businesses affected by the development, the people who might use the place and, perhaps more important, the people who would not use it. Have not noticed much consultation with the neighbours who may well suffer from noise and the actions of "Intoxicated persons" leaving the venue in the small hours of the morning.

 

If the plans do go ahead I fear not so much cost and time over runs but that the initial design will have far too many fancy bits that will go wrong given time.....as in the Scottish Parliament. Not had a good look yet but I am inclined to think that the museum will have too many things to go wrong as well.

 

Location?. North Ness might be fine for a cinema and theatre.....and for low key concerts......but I believe it is not a suitable location for holding what I will call "major band" events on the grounds of noise and proximity to the sea.

 

Just noticed a flaw in the plans. Paper says 300 seated OR 600 standing in the main auditorium. Bit negative that. I am sure someone like Daniel o Donell.....however he spells it.....could fill more than 300 seats. If I am right the thing is also too small before it is built.

[BigMouth]

I was going to the Garrison (theatre) tonight. Sadly, due to the weather, the cast have not been able to make it up from the mainland!

 

I will be there tomorrow though, making a thorough nuisance of myself.

 

If anyone who would like to attend and had some excellent excuse as to why they can't I am happy to carry a cardboard cutout of you to the venue!

[Guest Anonymous]

I was going to the Garrison (theatre) tonight. Sadly, due to the weather, the cast have not been able to make it up from the mainland!

 

I will be there tomorrow though, making a thorough nuisance of myself.

 

If anyone who would like to attend and had some excellent excuse as to why they can't I am happy to carry a cardboard cutout of you to the venue!

 

why would you want to go and do that? your tablets woren off?

[Guest Anonymous]

I was going to the Garrison (theatre) tonight. Sadly, due to the weather, the cast have not been able to make it up from the mainland!

 

I will be there tomorrow though, making a thorough nuisance of myself.

 

If anyone who would like to attend and had some excellent excuse as to why they can't I am happy to carry a cardboard cutout of you to the venue!

 

why would you want to go and do that? your tablets woren off?

 

sorry i just minded - im going too- im dead agenst spending 9 million on a white........ although i think the pubs complaining that there profits will be down might take the point that the actual films and musis will never pay in the first place