Our business is at a very critical point. We have received all the funding we are going to receive during the present financial year. Local authority councils are now deciding how much they will support us through their next financial year. Things do not look encouraging. Our future looks bleak. Closure is a possibility.

We will make a small loss this financial year. Funding from our main local authority source had been cut significantly. Donations and severe cost-cutting were our salvation. Funding from that main local authority source will shrink further this coming year. While Corsham Town Council will continue to allow us rent-free use of Arnold House and maintain its funding as in recent years, it cannot be expected to do more.

We are not alone. All of Wiltshire’s TICs are in a similar position. Some of the 16 have already gone under.

Corsham Area Development Trust Ltd (CADT) runs the Corsham Area Heritage & Information Centre. It has since October 2006. The CADT started with 2 directors – Ian Storey and Peter Tapscott. Last summer Peter decided to concentrate on the Heritage Centre part – and to make room for somebody else to assist Ian in fighting Corsham TIC’s corner. It had become clear that establishing the Friends of the Corsham Area Heritage Centre as a standalone organisation was in Corsham’s best interests.

With his considerable knowledge of Wiltshire Council, Ian set out to get the best deal he could for Corsham’s TIC. Then, in late November, Ian sadly passed away.

The Methuen Arms Hotel is now fully open after an extensive refurbishment – providing a major boost to Corsham as a visitor centre.

After an unwelcome period of closure, The Methuen was bought by the local Still Family in April last year. They have since embarked on a total refurbishment to restore this historic inn back to its crucial position as the social hub of the Corsham community.

In addition to the bars and restaurant areas that reopened just before Christmas, 12 individually-designed bedrooms are now available to the public.

Designed with an emphasis on British-made furnishings, each bedroom has a King or Super King size bed (three of which are four posters), Egyptian cotton sheets and luxurious blankets.

Several attractive outside spaces, including gardens and seating areas, are also opening throughout the summer.

The Methuen was recently awarded an impressive 5* AA assessment for its Rooms and a superb 2 Rosettes for its Restaurant. Well done to Martin and Debbie!

A Group has come together to form a support organisation for Corsham Area Heritage Centre, the facility that is co-located with the Corsham Information Centre at Arnold House in Corsham's High Street.  The Group will operate outside of the Corsham Area Development Trust and its Corsham Area Heritage & Information Centre.  It will have its own structure and constitution.

These elements have yet to be put in place.  Instead the emphasis has been on attacting the membership from which officers will be appointed and through whose efforts a range of member-benefits will be developed.  One of the key intentions is to be the source of funding beyond the local authority grants upon which the survival of the Heritage Centre remains to this day - and upon which reliance there must continue to be an expectation, however marginal that might be made to become.

To this end, a recruiting flyer / sign-up form has been devised.  Copies are being located at various sites in and around the Town.  The process is extremely simple.  Registration to be a member requires only the completion of the form, the writing of a cheque to value £20 to cover the first year's membership, and the handing-in of the form and cheque to the CAH&IC at its office in Arnold House, 31 High Street.
 
The flyer / sign-up form is additiuonally available as a .pdf here, alongside the "Expression of Interest" form which has been there for some weeks.  (This new sign-up form is the natural 'next step' in the process of establishing the Friends.  We thank all of you who have responded to the Expression of Interest invitation.)  The sign-up form can be printed off quite readily.

We chose to await the outcome of Wiltshire Council’s Cabinet meeting scheduled for 25 January before putting the latest edition of Arnold’s News to bed. We prepared the rest and resolved to write this lead story straight after returning from attending the Cabinet meeting. Anything could happen.

The Council had prepared the ground well. We had been advised of a fundamental change in the way it would be addressing the county’s tourism industry. VisitWiltshire (VW) was to be set up as a separate company, dependent upon significant funding from the Council. Its
role was to promote Wiltshire as the place to visit. TICs were to be regarded as having a role only when the visitors were here – at which point it was the local economy that benefited, and would be expected to bear the cost of supporting its TIC.

Being one of five TICs in the county that have been supported by Wiltshire Council, we had been told that our 2011/2012 funding from WC would be cut. We set about some serious lobbying. We pointed out that we were different. We had adopted the ‘Big Society’ 4 years
before the term was first heard in the Westminster Village! We made sure our local town and parish councils were aware of our plight. We had already cut our costs to the bone.

25 January was to be our Day of Destiny. We listened. Routes to other Wiltshire Council funding were revealed when other service-provision was being discussed. We were given our opportunity to address the meeting. We took it.

The result? Our situation is the subject of ongoing discussion. We are now in consultation with the Service Director for Economy & Enterprise and the Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Planning and Housing to investigate the feasibility of securing local funding.

Corsham Information & Heritage Centre has recently achieved 10 years of serving the public; residents and visitors alike. It opened its doors in the summer of 2000 – a fact recorded on the plaque to be found on the inside wall of the Heritage Room.

To mark the occasion, the twosome who originally opened the Centre reconvened at Arnold House on September 23rd to celebrate the event. The very same Lord Lansdowne and Roger Fido were on hand to recognise the successes of those ten years and to wish “many more” to those presently entrusted with the running of the Centre – ourselves, the CADT.

It was fitting that the Centre had just been recognised by Mystery Shoppers from Enjoy England as performing better than ever before. Enjoy England assessed 322 TICs in England in 2010. We were rated 17th overall – and 3rd in Wiltshire’s 18, behind Salisbury and Swindon.

The shoppers had telephoned, e-mailed and actually visited the Centre, rating it on its speed of response, the warmth of its welcome, the degree of local knowledge exhibited by its staff and their eagerness to promote the area to their visitors. Now that really is service. Thank you team!

As well as books, maps and souvenirs relating to Corsham, the Centre books local accommodation. Taken together with evening meals, this is conservatively estimated to put over £20,000 directly into the local economy.