(a)

in May 2015 the National Heritage Lottery Fund had awarded £13m to the History Centre project;

(b)

the Working Plymouth Panel would be provided with a further presentation upon the History Centre at the 14 October 2015 meeting whereby Event Management, the project contractor, would be in attendance to answer questions;

(c)

South West Film & Television Archive, South West Image Bank, Plymouth University and Plymouth City Council were the four principle partners of the project; the Stakeholders Partnership Board included representation from the Ministry of Defence, BBC, Destination Plymouth, Plymouth College of Art and Plymouth Culture Board;

(d)

the proposed History Centre was situated between the University and College of Art and was on the site of the current museum and library; the impetus for the project centred around the Records Office which contained the city’s archives. There was concern that the archives were at risk and needed saving for the future; the History Centre project evolved to save the archives, show off the City’s collections of artefacts and provide a new visitor attraction for Plymouth;

(e)

Officers provided the National Heritage Lottery Fund with a review report detailing progress on the project; detailed plans were required to be submitted by Spring 2016 however it was considered that additional funding was required, due to the increased costs linked to inflation. A bid for £4.175m had been submitted to the Arts Council however a decision wouldn’t be made until February 2016;

(f)

one of the aims of the History Centre was to try to create a sense of place and identity; changes would be required to the public realm to ensure this was achieved particularly when linking the building to St Luke’s Church. It was anticipated that there would be a modest amount of demolition to the rear of the central library where the 1950’s extension currently stands to bring the building up to a national standard for exhibition space. There would also be programmable space outside the centre where art collections and heritage displays could be spilled out onto the street creating an active environment both day and night;

(g)

‘Event Communications’ were appointed at the end of April 2015 to help develop the content of the project including how internal spaces should be designed to create the desired effects; the café and shop space would also be expanded from original plans;

(h)

the ground floor of the History Centre would allow visitors to walk in the footsteps of Darwin, Drake and Scott, visit the Plymouth portal, explore reasons why men and women have gone out into the wider world, Plymouth’s link with the Navy and the importance of the sea to the city; it was planned that the commercial  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.