ALTON Assembly Rooms look set to benefit from an additional £10k of refurbishment work this year, at the expense of the Town Hall's planned facelift. Alton Town Council's recreation committee has taken the decision to ask policy and resources to halve the budget put aside for painting the outside of the Town Hall. Instead the money will be used to support Alton Assembly Rooms' manager, Dean Phillips, in his bid to make the Crown Hill facility look more attractive and pay its way. In putting the case to last week's meeting, the Assembly Rooms' working-party chairman, Paddy Mendham, pointed out that since Mr Phillips had taken over the reins, the whole appearance of the Assembly Rooms had changed and more people were being attracted to use the building. Mr Phillips had many new ideas to improve the facility further, including the refurbishment of the back rooms, which could then be let out to generate more income. Mr Mendham proposed that part of the £20k budget allocated to external works on the Town Hall could be used to facilitate this work. Councillors further agreed to review the hire charges once the rooms had been refurbished, with a view to increasing them from £6 to £10 per hour, including VAT. In a report to the meeting, councillors heard that, thanks to Mr Phillips and to the new caretaker, the standard of cleaning had improved, along with the general appearance of the building. The entrance hall in particular had benefited from the installation of new light fittings and Mr Phillips was in the process of restoring the staircase banisters to their former glory. Councillors agreed to fund completion of this work, to the tune of £600, from existing budgets and pay £200 for the new lighting fixtures. Mr Phillips had undertaken a survey of regular users of the building, which had revealed the main hall seating to be inadequate. A random survey of local residents had also been undertaken to investigate what kind of events people wanted and a new website had been set up at http://www.altonassemblyrooms.co.uk">www.altonassemblyrooms.co.uk with a display board which was already advertising the forthcoming AODS production. Mr Phillips had revised the booking system to make it easier to use and was in discussion with a number of groups about their potential use of the building. He was also planning a number of musical events for the autumn - all of which attracted keen support from the recreation committee. However, councillors gave guarded support in principle to the concept of converting the lower room to provide a café/bar operated by a third party. This, they pointed out, would be a major project and one which would need a great deal of consideration. In proposing to defer the external redecoration of the Town Hall until 2007, in favour of the work at the Assembly Rooms, it was noted that there would be enough money remaining in this year's budget (£10k) to deal with a pressing damp problem in one of the walls.
