Agenda item

            (Mrs. M. T. McGivern, Director of Development, attended in connection with this item.)

            The Director of Development advised the Members that, following its closure for refurbishment for eighteen months at a cost of £11 million, the reopening of the City Hall would be a key event in the 2009 Celebrations which the Council had been co-ordinating with other stakeholders in the City.  The Director of Development explained that she had been tasked to lead a cross?Departmental group to consider and bring forward ideas and plans for the formal and public reopening of the City Hall.

            The group had considered its task in the context of the following issues:

·         any reopening of the City Hall should aim to maximise the number of individuals and groups visiting the refurbished building and encourage the ongoing ‘openness’ of the Hall to the citizens of and visitors to the City; and

·         the current economic climate meant that the optimisation of any existing and available resources should be utilised rather than seeking to expend additional resources.

            As a consequence, it was recommended that the reopening should take place over a number of days rather than as a one-off event, thereby increasing the number of visitors, and should occur at a time when it could be linked to and utilise other events taking place in Belfast.  Taking everything into account, the period from 17th till 31st October, 2009 had been deemed to be the most appropriate for the holding of events to mark the reopening.

            The draft programme included some new events but also utilised a number of events which had already been planned for that period.  The programme also linked the Festival at Queen’s, Belfast Fashion Week and the Hallowe’en Festival in order to maximise impact.  It would serve also to kick-start a very significant events programme for the City from mid?October right up to Christmas which could tie in with the tourism and retail strategy.  The Director stated that the programme, a copy of which had previously been circulated, set out the events and associated costs, indicated the various groups and categories which were targeted and sought to attract as wide a range of people as possible and to utilise existing budgets.  In addition, negotiations had been taking place with the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society to produce an architectural history of the City Hall in time for the reopening at an approximate cost of £13,000.

            After a lengthy discussion, the Committee:

(i)      approved the reopening programme, subject to the inclusion of an event detailing the Council’s contribution to the economic life of the City and those services which it delivered to the public and to the omission of the holding of a civic dinner;

(ii)     agreed that a further report which provided appropriate alternative options for the holding of community-based events instead of the holding of a civic dinner be submitted to its next meeting; and

(iii)    approved also the production of a book on the architectural history of the City Hall at an approximate cost of £13,000.