Town Hall Panel Meeting Update
Last night I attended my first Tunbridge Wells Town Panel meeting at the Town Hall. It was my first of any such kind of committee meeting at the Council so it was more of a listening and learning exercise than anything else.
There was lots of talk of what people wanted from future meetings, what ideas should be proposed in future, and who should help with what, and I shall go into more detail soon I promise. But, after sitting down this morning with a cup of coffee and reading the rather extensive paperwork I was handed I've noticed something within that I wish I had seen yesterday. It's just one throwaway line in a table headed "Town Centre Use Requirements" and it reads:
Museums and Art Galleries -
the current provision is sufficient
I'm sorry but the current provision is not sufficient. I cannot believe that of all the research done into what the public wants from the future of our town, every person quizzed was totally satisfied with our museum being the size it is and had no desire to see any improvement. Is the history of our town so unimportant that we are happy to have it the size it is?
A lot of talk has been that the future design of our town must somehow look to the past, well why don't we celebrate the past with improving our museum? How many of you would love to see all the exhibits stored underneath in the vaults out on display?
How many of you would love to see the museum take over the entire Civic Centre building with that grand entrance up the wide stairs pulling in every passing tourist. Think of the big rooms of the Town Hall filled with the wonderful exhibits. Imagine the room available for touring exhibitions. Imagine the space available for school parties to learn about our past. Imagine the gift shop and café that could generate income. Imagine it!
OK, breathe! Come on now Tunbridge Wells, would you really say no to having a museum to be proud of?
I shall write more about the Town Panel shortly, and in future you can always find all of the Town Panel materials by clicking "Town panel" in the categories column over on the right.
