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The next round of public consultations on the future of NewSPAL will take place in September and October in Redhill and Guildford.  Follow this link to find out more and details of how to sign up.
We welcome your opinions.

​NewSPAL is delighted to announce that Victoria Taylor has been appointed as Transition Project Manager, starting in June 2019. Victoria has over 9 years of professional experience in arts management, having previously worked for the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), Brighter Sound, Opera North, Manchester International Festival, Artis Foundation and the Voices Foundation.
 
​The Board and team at NewSPAL look forward to working with Victoria, who will lead the charity through the next phase of transition and support operational development over the next 9-12 months.

What is the New Surrey Performing Arts Library (NewSPAL)?
 
For decades, Surrey County Council has been running a performing arts library for its residents, including hiring out sheet music and multiple sets of plays, often used by choirs, instrumental groups, drama reading groups, youth theatres and amateur theatre groups in the county and beyond. The collection is one of the largest in England.
 
18 months ago, it was seriously threatened with closure due to Surrey County Council budget cuts. Residents, whilst sympathetic to their council’s difficulties, were not prepared to see this collection dispersed or closed and so have fought to take on responsibility for the performing arts library themselves.
 
A new, user-led charity, set up in January 2018, was finally given the go-ahead by Surrey County Council in February 2019 to set up a new performing arts library and receive the collection (on loan until ownership can be permanently transferred).
 
Woking Borough Council has already offered premises to house the new facility free of charge. Whilst waiting for the building to be made ready, NewSPAL needs to raise £125,000 for the transition and transfer the entire collection of over 200,000 items to a new online catalogue, employ specialist librarians and more.

How the public can help -

• By donating or fundraising -  60% (£70,000) of the £125,000 target has already been raised
•  By signing up to volunteer – many helpers will be needed in the short term to support the move to a new building and to a new online catalogue 
• By signing up to pre-register as a user of the new service - further information will be emailed to you in due course

​For more information please contact:
Victoria Taylor, Transition Project Manager, victoria.taylor@newspal.org.uk

Having received NewSPAL's 2019 to 2021 Business Plan from the Trustees (downloadable at the foot of this page) SCC have set up a consultation to gauge user reaction to aspects of the Plan.
 
The consultation runs until 3rd February 2019, which means its results will be available for the Surrey County Council Cabinet Meeting, in Kingston, on Tuesday 26th February. This is where the final decision on NewSPAL's suitability to take over SPAL will be decided - the final decision we have waited over a year to receive.
 
Before you complete the survey, we invite you to read the comments below.
 
SCC have represented NewSPAL's proposals for the running of SPAL as well as possible given the limited space (and little time to put the survey together). They have tried hard to paint a full picture. There are always a few things though that don't come across or could be expressed better, hence these remarks:
 
NewSPAL's proposals include taking on all the material currently in SPAL. As well as the multiple music and drama
sets for performance, that includes the chamber music and other music for individuals, the collection of books and other resources related to drama, music, dance and film.
 
- if you are a librarian, MD or committee member of a drama or music group using performance sets from SPAL, you will want to fill in the survey with that 'hat' on
 
- if you are a member of a group that uses SPAL for performance materials, drama or music (even if not responsible for doing the actual research or borrowing), then you too will probably want to complete the survey with your group in mind
 
- if you are a member of a group that uses SPAL for performance materials, drama or music, AND you are also an individual user, whether for music, drama, books or other resources, then you may want to complete the survey in your individual capacity, rather than with your group in mind
 
- if you are solely an individual user of SPAL, independent of any group, please do complete the survey in that capacity
 
- if you are none of the above, you can say so in the survey, and please do still complete it, eg if you're a network, national organisation, local charity, or a festival
 
We hope this will make more sense once you go through the survey... which doesn't ask the capacity in which you are completing it until a fair way in.
 
At every stage you can go back to all the previous questions, so if you decide part way through to change your 'hat', you can always go back and amend your answers.
 
And question 17 gives you scope, in whatever capacity, to write up to 200 words of comments, so if you find you're not able to get your thoughts across with the multiple choice questions, this is your chance to do so.

Click here for:
Surrey Performing Arts Library and the proposed transfer to NewSPAL

Please pass the page link below to your drama and music contacts in Surrey, West Sussex, and further afield. NewSPAL want to demonstrate positive support for our plans from within the County and beyond, and from every type of user. This breadth of interest and support will be essential to the success of Surrey's re-established Performing Arts Library.
                                                                         http://newspal.org.uk/blog.html
 
And finally ! Please put 2pm Tuesday 26th February in your diary when the final NewSPAL decision will be taken at Surrey County Hall in Kingston. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.


Click here to support NewSPAL with funds and/or by volunteering 

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