Can't Figure Mima Out ; Your Say This Men and Suggest They Classify All Our Potholes

Summary

---

THE article Running Of mima In The Spotlight (News, 28.01.11) failed to include the fact that Denis Lane and councillors J Elder, B Hubbard and J McTigue were present to query this decision.

We asked why action was not taken sooner when it was obvious that the gallery was costing the council over pounds 1m a year and budget cuts were going to be inevitable? Where did the non-stipulated annual visitor figures (around 150,000 -more than 400 visiting daily) come from and how were they calculated when only very few people view the exhibits and many merely use the cafe and toilet facilities yet are still included? How do these figures correlate with the reported assertions that businesses benefit trade-wise from the extra tourists? If pictures such as the original Bosch were shown instead of piles of coal and coffee-stained bits of paper -an anathema to most Middlesbrough residents who say their children can do better -then surely they would be more interested and less critical? Why was the alternative solution of a two-year mothballing of the building not included in the report, affording a temporary pounds 2m saving while awaiting the pounds 20,000 commissioned consultants' report and another pounds 25,000 before it could possibly be implemented around 2014/15? Also why could this investigation not be carried out "in house", thereby cutting consultants' costs? Though these questions were dismissed as irrelevant, we disagreed. They all arose from information in the report and the public has a right to know what Middlesbrough Council is going to do to close the pounds 15m shortfall by cutting outgoings -the biggest of which is the upkeep and servicing of mima.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Can't Figure Mima Out ; Your Say This Men and Suggest They Classify All Our Potholes

COUNCILLORS J ELDER, B HUBBARD and J McTIGUE, In...

See the full content of this document

---