Further Delay from Surrey County Council (SCC)

Despite submitting our Report to Cabinet on time, we were informed as late as November 8th that it would NOT be presented to the November SCC Cabinet Meeting on Tuesday 27th.
 
The Chairman of NewSPAL therefore expressed our amazement and our disappointment in the letter below, sent to each Councillor member of the SCC Cabinet:
 
 
Dear Cabinet members,
 
At your meeting in June you invited NewSPAL to produce a detailed business plan for our proposed takeover of the Surrey Performing Arts Library for you to consider in "the Autumn". With the assistance of a highly qualified  consultant appointed by NewSPAL we have done so. With a view to the  internal timetable leading to your 27 November meeting, a preliminary draft of the plan was given to your officers in early October. We received "final comments" from your officers on 30 October. We were also asked to provide a short letter to you which could be annexed to  the officers' report to you. We did so on 1 November. On 7 November we provided your officers with the revised plan which addressed the comments we had received. On 8 November we were informed by Liz Mills that your officers now considered our proposal would need to be the subject of a public consultation before it could be presented to you.
 
The main elements of our proposal have been in the public domain since March. Although we were, accordingly, slightly surprised that no mention of a further public consultation was made at any stage in our discussions with your officers until we received Liz Mills's email on 8 November, we understand the reasons why a public consultation might be appropriate. A fair consultation exercise should help to re-galvanise public interest in how best to provide a long-term sustainable future for this highly-valued service. To assist to make the consultation as well-informed as possible, we intend to make both our 1 November letter and our plan publicly available.  
 
There is nothing in our 1 November letter which needs to be changed as a result of the proposed public consultation. As a courtesy, therefore, I am attaching a copy of it for your information before it is made public.
 
Yours sincerely,
Mark Welling ♦ Chair, NewSPAL (registered charity (England and Wales) no. 1176729)
 
 
Reply: The Cabinet Member for Community Services is very pleased to receive proposals from NewSPAL in respect of the Surrey Performing Arts Library and acknowledges the significant progress
made in moving towards robust new arrangements. We are committed to making a decision about the
new arrangements at the earliest opportunity and in order to achieve this will undertake a final consultation over the coming weeks. It is planned to take the proposals to Cabinet in February 2019 for decision following the consultation.
 
Ms Denise Turner-Stewart
Cabinet Member for Community Services
27 November 2018
 
♦  View the relevant section of the SCC Cabinet meeting on this link.  ♦
 
 
What happens next:
 
We are waiting to hear the new timetable SCC will impose on us.
 
Until we are given SCC Cabinet approval we cannot:

• sign any buildings lease
• recruit librarians
• contract a specialist firm to move the stock
• purchase Nottingham City's specialist software to manage the sets collections


• but most of all we cannot...


• OPEN your NewSPAL for a full, professionally-managed service to Surrey's playreading, drama, musical, and opera groups, choirs, concert bands, and orchestras