Agenda and minutes
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PDF 281 KBVenue: Committee Room 1
Contact: Dianne Scambler
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Apologies for absence Minutes: An apology for absence was submitted on behalf of Councillor Mark Perks. |
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Declarations of Any Interests Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda. If the interest arises only as result of your membership of another public body or one to which you have been appointed by the Council then you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.
If the personal interest is a prejudicial interest, you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter. Minutes: Councillor Marion Lowe – Chairman of the Friends of Astley Hall. |
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Questions to the representatives As agreed at the last meeting of the Group, representatives from the following organisations have been invited to attend and answer questions about their involvement in tourism.
· Chorley Council – Chris Bryan, Astley Hall and Arts Officer · Lancashire County Council – Ian Watson, Head of Cultural Services · United Utilities – Neville Kidd, Rivington Manager
Questions have been drafted for the representatives of Chorley Council and Lancashire County Council and will be sent to the invitees in advance of the meeting. A copy is enclosed for Members information.
A copy of the written responses to the questions submitted to United Utilities is also enclosed for your information.
Members requested that a representative from United Utilities be invited to the next meeting of the Group, to discuss the answers given in more detail
Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced the representatives who had been invited to attend as witnesses. These were Chris Bryan, Astley Hall and Arts Officer, Chorley Council, Ian Watson, Head of Cultural Services, Lancashire County Council, Neville Kidd, Catchment Manager, United Utilities and Hazel Gregory, United Utilities.
Discussion with Chris Bryan, Astley Hall and Arts Officer, Chorley Council
1. Do we currently gather any information about where visitors to the Hall and events in the walled garden travel from? If not, do you think it would be practical to do this? We do not collect monitoring information on visitors to the Hall. Although, there is a visitors book and anecdotal evidence from staff which suggests visitors are mainly from Chorley. There have been visitors from USA/Australia in the past. Going forward monitoring information will be collected.
In relation to events in the Walled Garden the Big Drum Day event attracted 25% of visitors from outside the Borough and 25% came from outlying areas within the Borough. In total 2,000 people came which is excellent considering there isn’t much advertising undertaken.
For the Shakespearean play one third of visitors came from outside Borough (for example Wigan and Bolton) and the rest were split equally from the urban core and parishes within the Borough.
2. Have you got any suggestions for how the Hall could be marketed to visitors from outside the borough? There is a need to increase the quality of the visitor experience, the profile of the Hall and to increase publicity surrounding it. There is potential to develop links with Lancashire Life and to improve the content on the Council’s website. Visitors do give negative feedback on the website as they find it difficult to navigate and the content is not always is reader friendly format.
There are plans to revamp the website and to improve the experience of visiting the Hall up to the standard of other museums.
3. Are there any plans to use the Hall and coach house more extensively for weddings and conferences? Last year there were 15 weddings. The weddings package is currently being redesigned as in the past we could only offer facilities for the ceremony itself. Now that the coach house and walled garden had been refurbished the whole event could be held within the Park. There was potential for customers to hold their reception in the Lancastrian in the future.
Up to this point there had not been a huge amount of promotion on the conference facilities, but this would be increased going forward.
4. What are the key limiting factors for hosting events in Astley Park? The biggest issue is the car parking capacity. We have tried different parking strategies for the picnic in the park event but have not yet found an ideal solution.
The second biggest issue is finding good event co-ordinators.
5. Do we do work with accommodation providers in the surrounding area to encourage people staying in hotels to visit the hall and ... view the full minutes text for item 12.TPC.24 |