A CONTROVERSIAL decision by Alton Town Council to employ Alton Community Association to run the Assembly Rooms has stirred up a hornet’s nest on social media.

Being entered into as a cost-cutting exercise by the town council, the decision to outsource the operation of the town centre facility has sparked some serious public debate.

Of key concern has been the value placed on Alton Assembly Rooms as a public asset and whether it should be expected to pay its way – or whether profit making be allowed to outweigh its benefit to the community.

And what of the human cost, with the three existing members of staff expected to lose their jobs?

Criticised for its lack of transparency, the proposal was made public for the first time during a full council meeting on February 10 when members were asked to ratify an agreement to enter into an operating contract with Alton Community Association to provide caretaking, booking and marketing services for the Assembly Rooms.

Alton Town Council leader Peter Hicks opened the debate by explaining that there had been growing concern about the substantial year-on-year losses in operating the Assembly Rooms and the impact this has on the town council budget.

He said that the Assembly Rooms had incurred losses of almost £350,000 over the past 10 years and, while it was later agreed that this figure included at least £100,000 in refurbishment and maintenance of the Grade II Listed building, it was, he suggested, no longer sustainable and could not be an effective way to spend public money.

Town Clerk Leah Coney confirmed that £46,000 of operating losses was predicted for this current year, of which £40,000 were staff costs.

Under the outsourcing proposal, while Alton Town Council will still pay for the maintenance and running of the building it is expecting to reduce the deficit to the public purse to around £5,000 per year by off-loading staffing costs and paying Alton Community Association a fixed annual fee, for provision of caretaking, marketing and booking services. This will run alongside a revenue share agreement for any income generated above a certain level, all of which is yet to be agreed.

If successful, the partnership approach will, it is hoped, offer an opportunity in the future to provide the venue at no cost at all to the tax payer.

Furthermore, it was made clear that Alton Town Council has “absolutely no intention to sell or dispose of the Assembly Rooms”.

“It is,” said Mr Hicks, “part of the fabric of the town”. But he added that “for many years a solution has been sought by Alton Town Council which would reduce the financial deficit while ensuring this building remains a public hiring venue”.

Challenging the need for an outsourcing solution, Alton mayor Pam Jones pointed out that the Assembly Rooms had been given to the town as a leisure facility “for the people of Alton” and one which, in her opinion, should be paid for via the precept.

“It has never made a profit. At best you can expect it to break even,” she said, believing that the benefits of the Assembly Rooms to the community could not be measured in monetary terms.

County councillor Andrew Joy pointed out that the challenge was to run a community facility such as the Assembly Rooms “for the public good while keeping the deficit at a minimum”.

There were questions from the floor over why the problem had not been discussed with the wider public and criticism over the loss of an award-winning manager who had done “an excellent job” in promoting the Assembly Rooms and whose expertise would be a loss to the council.

While it was acknowledged that town council staff had worked hard to increase income streams and introduced a number of in-house events to help boost revenue, the cost of running and maintaining such a building had been a challenge.

As such, according to the town clerk, over the past few years a number of options had been explored to try to substantially reduce and potentially remove the increasing burden on taxpayers. Members of Alton Town Council’s policy and resources committee had suggested an approach was made to Alton Community Association to determine if a form of collaborative working could provide the answer.

She said: “It was felt that the charity was uniquely placed to assist, having a proven track record successfully promoting and administering another popular public building in Alton at the community centre, which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.

“The resulting agreement to collaborate demonstrates that Alton Community Association is an active and progressive charity and working together with the Assembly Rooms will give local groups, organisations and commercial users a wider variety of rooms to hire, via a single booking system.”

Alton Community Association trustee and treasurer Nicky Branch said: “We believe that this collaboration gives a most exciting opportunity to build on our combined reputations, contacts and facilities, as well as giving a long-term, commercially viable choice of venues for the benefit of the local community.”

The details of the agreement will be finalised at a closed meeting on March 2.