It has spawned acres of news coverage, numerous artists' impressions, public consultations and some unflattering comparisons to the Millennium Dome. MATTHEW NIXSON examines Barnet's Tally Ho scheme, launched this week.

The Project: Artsdepot will include a 400-seater main auditorium coupled with a 150-seat studio theatre as well as galleries and exhibition space. Overall, the public-private project contains 150 luxury flats, including 14 penthouse apartments, several shops, including a large 'anchor' retailer, possibly Marks & Spencer, and a health and fitness centre, including a swimming pool. It stands 14-storeys high, bigger than Barnet House in Whetstone High Road. A bus depot underneath the scheme will feed into a redesigned road system around Tally Ho including some pedestrianisation. The North Finchley site has been empty since the closure of the Gaumont Cinema some 20 years ago. Its market has now been relocated to Lodge Lane, Finchley.

The History: The project was born out of the Barnet 2000 conference in 1996. Barnet Council, which already owned half the site, purchased the rest. Councillors first endorsed it in January 1998 and it received planning permission in July 2000. Above ground building works started last month and the scheme was officially launched on Thursday last week.

The Aspirations: The project's original vision statement spoke of "an accessible, inter-cultural arts venue that offers inspiring, innovative and educational work in partnership with local, national and international communities and provides a landmark flagship cultural centre in the heart of the borough". Council leader Alan Williams described it as "a key prestige project for the borough which will really start to put Barnet on the map".

He told the launch party: "It's about having pride in our borough and pride in our residents and wanting to invest in our borough for their benefit." The arts centre trust is currently working on the opening programme. Artsdepot director Alison Duthie says it will be an eclectic mix involving world class drama, dance, music and comedy as well as community groups. Critics say it will be unable to compete with the nearby West End. Ms Duthie denies programmers will be forced to stage "populist" shows to attract audiences.

The Partners: The Bull arts centre in Barnet High Street is the key partner. It currently has 60,000 visitors a year and its management team will, eventually, transfer to North Finchley for the artsdepot project. The future of The Bull itself is currently undecided. Council leader Alan Williams is keen for it to survive in some form.

Barnet College will base performing arts courses at the new centre, providing much of the 'education' component of the scheme. The college has provided an undisclosed amount of funding towards interior fitting costs. Community Focus, the Grahame Park-based arts group for the disabled, will be moving into the North Finchley centre. It will broaden the centre's user-base and may pay a peppercorn rent but provides no real funding.

The Developers: Barnet Council's two major partners are Wilcon Homes and Chiltern Developments, with responsibility for planning, designing and building the project. Both are involved in numerous developments across both Barnet and London. The builder is Surrey-based MJ Gleeson, which took over after original contractor Carillion, formerly Tarmac, pulled out in January.

The Opponents: Green Party activists and Tories oppose the project on the grounds of cost and scale. They picketed its launch on Thursday and describe it as "Barnet's own Millennium Dome". Councillors Brian Coleman, Brian Salinger and Victor Lyon, Tory group leader, have been outspoken opponents. Tories initially welcomed the project until its scale became clear. Mr Coleman, Greater London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden, referred the project to London Mayor Ken Livingstone but he declined to become involved claiming he came to power too late to order a public inquiry. Tories also threatened a judicial review of the project, but a senior barrister advised them they did not have sufficient legal grounds.

Public opinion is harder to gauge. In early 2000 the borough claimed 93 per cent support for the arts centre after circulating 12,000 consultation letters. It later, embarrassingly, emerged the figure referred to support for regenerating North Finchley rather that the arts centre itself. Tories accused the council of sleight of hand on a grand scale. This paper has received dozens of letters concerning the project, both virulently for and against the project.

The Cost: The current cost of the arts centre component which has steadily risen since proposals were first given council backing in January 1998 stands at around £14million. Of that, Barnet Council's financial commitment is around £4million, not including the value of the site, conservatively estimated at around £1million. Overall, the cost of building the whole project is now £44million, up from original estimates of £35million.

Paying For it: Some £600,000 of the borough's £4million commitment comes from Barnet's stake in the charitable Edward Harvist fund. Broken down, costs include: £2.675million capital costs towards building; £500,000 diverting gas, sewers and phone lines; £150,000 for changes to bus contraflow; £100,000 towards using the Woodhouse Road car park as a temporary bus depot; and £600,000 over three years for administration costs. The latter including £70,000 marketing and fundraising for the arts centre in 2001, two years before it is due to open particularly angered arts centre opponents. Council papers also reveal it is set to lose nearly £300,000 in its first year. Arts centre trustees say ticket sales and charitable grants will cover operating costs but Barnet Council will also provide some £230,000 annually, including the £100,000 a year which currently funds The Bull. Flat sales and retailer's rent will cover developers' costs.

The Crunch: This may come on May 2 next year with the local authority elections. Barnet's Tory group has vowed to scrap the artsdepot project if it is returned to power. They will almost certainly refuse to subsidise it from the public purse. However, they will be unable to scrap the scheme completely without incurring millions of pounds of costs because of contractual obligations. The scheme's original time-scale would have seen it open its doors in spring 2002. While the project would be impossible to cancel outright, the arts centre component could be modified into something else.

December 12, 2001 18:04

MATTHEW NIXSON