I REFER to your article concerning the Council's decision to take the running of Smithills Hall away from the Trust and return it to the council.

In your report you quote Cllr Wilkinson as saying: "The Trust has done a reasonable job but it's time to move on". What a grudging acknowledgement of the tremendous success that the Trust has made of the Hall!

I would like to make the following observations:

1. In the last two or three years the Trust has brought to the Hall weddings and other civil ceremonies, ghost evenings, farmers markets and tremendous exposure on television from which we have earned revenue and it has cost nothing. We have successfully managed the education programme and put on numerous events for the public largely funded by money which would not be available to the council.

2. If you compare the summer of 2003 with the summer of 2005 revenue has increased by 116 per cent and visitors to the Hall by 49 per cent.

3. Members of the Trust Board put in at least 4,000 hours annually to running the Hall at no cost. These are not just 9am to 5pm five hours, they include late evening and weekends. We estimate conservatively that it would cost the ratepayer at least £50,000 per year to cover this work. Bear in mind the Trust brings a large variety of skills, it would be difficult to imagine council employees replicating them.

4. The Friends of Smithills, with whom the Trust has an excellent working relationship and who put in at least 6,000 hours at the Hall, are very upset at the proposal. Without their co-operation the Hall would close.

Much has been made of the government's decision to bring Museum services back into the Town Hall, and that additional funding would be available. The Council still owns the Hall, and as we see it there is still nothing to prevent the Hall being run by a Trust. The Trust has already obtained £12,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a conservation plan, and there are at least another 30 charitable organisations who will give money to charities such as the Trust to refurbish listed buildings. Given the councils permission the Trust could go ahead and refurbish the rest of the downstairs at the Hall without the council employees having to do any work at all.

Smithills is described by many as the "Jewel in the Crown" in Bolton. Please leave it in the hands of those who will cherish it.

Stephen Crow

Member of the Board of Trustees Smithills Hall

Oak Lands

Heaton