Chamber throws lifeline to Kells Heritage Centre

Kells Chamber of Commerce has expressed its interest in taking over the Kells Heritage Centre with a view to running it as a cultural, tourist and business hub in the centre of the town. The heritage centre closed its doors on Sunday evening at 5pm and is to remain closed until councillors decide its fate when preparing its budget for next year in December. However, the local chamber has written to the town council offering to meet them with a view of drafting a business plan for the centre. At a special meeting of Kells Town Council last Friday, it emerged that the council has been subsidising the centre by €100,000 a year for nine-and-a-half years, which amounted to 19 per cent of the council's rate income. In the letter to the council this week, Kells Chamber president, Jess Olohan, said that while they recognised they were in tough financial times, they felt strongly that the heritage centre played an important role in the town. "We believe that the building needs to remain open to the public and that it continues to grow," she said. Council officials are to prepare a full report on the centre for a meeting later this month, which will include an architect's report and interest groups who have been involved in the centre are being asked for feedback. Last December, when the councillors were preparing the budget for this year, they halved the annual funding for the heritage centre, which meant it remained closed until April and it will now remain closed until the end of the year. Permanent staff at the centre have been redeployed elsewhere by the council and Fás is looking for alternative placements for those on a Community Employment Scheme who worked there. At Friday's meeting, the council cathoairleach, Cllr Brian Curran, stressed that the closure was a temporary one and was nothing to be alarmed about. He said the centre had a future and there was an an opportnity now to repackage the town. He urged the council to write to the Heritage and Local Government Minister to come to a meeting of the council and asked that Failte Ireland be briefed about councillors' concerns. Kells Town Clerk, Jarlath Flanagan, told the meeting that that €1.46 million had been spent on running the centre to date and it generated an income of €512,000 - a loss of €954,000, which was supported out of the town council budget each year. This was roughly €100,000 a year, or 19 per cent of commercial rates. Cllr Sean Drew said the centre had been developed to do two things - to increase the number of visitors to Kells and to bring the Book of Kells to the town - and neither had been achieved. He said they would now have to think 'outside the box' and their limited resources would have to be used to increase footfall. "We cannot allow the building to fall and become derelict," he said. Cllr Drew suggested that they look at the possibilitiy of opening a craft centre and other opportunities there. Cllr Sarah Reilly said the town needed a heritage centre which was a focus for tourism. "The building has a huge history behind it. If the heritage centre moves out, we'll have another derelict building on our hands," she remarked. Cllr Oliver Sweeney said the huge traffic congestion outside the centre wasn't creating the right atmosphere for tourists and pointed out that this would end next year, which should help. "We are answerable to the ratepayers. We should sit down and see what ideas we can come up with to make the heritage centre work," he said. Cllr Conor Ferguson said the council should seek ideas from the public on how to attract visitors to the centre which, he said, was a ready-made tourist office which benefited not just the town but surrounding areas such as Oldcastle. Cllr Tommy Grimes said the council has been constrained for the past nine years by the fact that they could only feature Kells's monastic past in the centre, because of the grants they received to develop the centre. He said that, after next year, the council could widen the centre's appeal with exhibitions on Kells sporting heroes of the past or clubs that were once part of Kells but are now gone. Cllr Grimes said it was shortsighted to not keep the centre open, as it was costing the council money even to keep it closed, and it wouldn't cost much more to keep it open at the weekends. The council had made the decision at last year's budget purely on the basis of finances, said Cllr Bryan Reilly. "The town needs a heritage centre. The restrictions will still be in place for another 18 months, but we need to start thinking about innovation and we need to enlist the support of the minister," he said. Cllr Brian Collins said they should look at community participation. "We have the historical society, arts groups and schools and we should ask them to come together as an advisory group," he said.