An update from our Chair, Scott Sherrard

Thank you again for the many supportive comments on our last update. It’s been an exciting few weeks for the team at the Maltings. Our test screenings at the temporary cinema in the Barracks Mob Store drew big audiences and much praise for the 21^st century comfort. And over 850 people showed what a community pulling together can produce with Matthew Rosier’s joyous Berwick Parade at Berwick Barracks. More than 2,500 people came to share the experience last weekend.

As promised in my last report, NCC has now submitted the planning application for the new Maltings in Eastern Lane. You’ll find it from the week of 17 March on the NCC website here. Do have a good look when you have the time. It’s a lengthy read because it’s thorough, detailed and reflects many of the helpful comments and suggestions from both rounds of public consultation. It also shows step-by-step how we arrived at our submission over a 3 year period.

This is about added choice. For everyone.

The Maltings has a single agenda: to do great things for Berwick and its community. That’s what we’re here for. And because not everyone’s the same, that means offering variety and choice – to consistently high standards.

Two new cinemas operating daily will be a fantastic addition for the town and guarantees that Berwick sees what the rest of the country sees, and at the same time. If you’ve come to any of our test screenings you’ll have high expectations, and rightly so. What’s more, every part of the new Maltings will be fully accessible – a long-needed change.

What about the visual impact?

We’re excited by the design, not only because of what it will enable us to provide. Great care has been taken with materials and features to ensure that it’s recognised as the confident and dynamic beacon that the town needs, from wherever it’s seen. People are its heart and they’ll see and be seen, front and back, through generous windows.

The new Maltings looks to the future, a proud addition to the skyline – but not at the expense of what is treasured. The profile is carefully broken-up to fit Berwick’s scale: it’s no monolith.

And the environmental impact?

While creating more light-filled usable space, the design will cut carbon emissions by 70%. This will slash our environmental impact and energy costs, which have been crippling in recent years. And we’ll be able to operate the building in sections rather than all or nothing. So it’s also good for business sustainability.

How will it increase community use?

As now, we’ll have studio/rehearsal space available for community use. Additionally, the theatre space and stage will offer many new opportunities, thanks to their flexible design and greater availability. There are additional meeting rooms and considerably improved flexibility in the public spaces throughout.

And as well as the new Maltings, the refurbished Gymnasium Gallery at the Barracks will provide more new community space from 2026.

What’s it costing? And who’s paying?

This thrilling programme for change has three key components – the new Maltings building, the improved Gymnasium Gallery, and the temporary cinema at the Barracks, which will become the new Berwick Archive.

The total budget is £28.34m. This consists of £25.5m from the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal and £2.84m from Northumberland County Council. We are enormously grateful to our funders. We’re also acutely aware that this budget is capped. There is no more.

We recognise that these are enormous amounts of money. Quite rightly, the project team has had to produce a detailed Business Case for scrutiny by government and the Borderlands Partnership. That evaluation shows that there will be a commercial return for the town, including job creation. It will also provide an engine for much-needed regeneration.

A charity. A community asset.

The Maltings (Berwick) Trust is a charity. Our principal funders are Arts Council England and Northumberland County Council. Despite their generosity, to deliver all our community outreach activities as well as an outstanding cultural offer to the local population we need to cover around threequarters of our costs from earned income. As venues across the UK will testify, that’s a continuing challenge; but one the Maltings team has met successfully through Covid and beyond.

The building schedule means we must close our usual performance spaces until 2027. We’ll keep the show on the road with films at the Barracks cinema, our Granary Gallery visual arts programme,  ad hoc events, youth theatre,  and project activity including artist commissions and residencies  – of which last week’s Berwick Parade was just the first. We’re looking forward to these new opportunities to get out and among the community. But overall, we’ll inevitably have fewer tickets to sell – so we’ll be looking for your support.

So what happens next?

From the week of 17 March everyone has the chance to read the planning application on the NCC website here.

We hope you’ll like what you find. We do need your support – not least as every further delay costs money. As noted above, the capped budget means rising costs will inevitably result in a scaled-back proposal. We don’t want to compromise the plans.

If you do wish to add your support, we’d be so grateful if you could express it on the planning portal. We want to show our funders in particular how much value the community places on this one-off opportunity for lasting change.

Scott Sherrard, Chair of The Maltings (Berwick) Trust