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Council removes fees at MTG Hawke’s Bay

Published: 27 September 2017

From Monday 2 October, entry to MTG Hawke's Bay will be free.

MTG Exterior2

NCC's Antoinette Campbell: "Removing entry charges is a great decision. It opens up MTG, which has sometimes struggled to attract the breadth of the community to it, to a completely new audience."

Napier City Council has today resolved to remove entry fees at MTG Hawke’s Bay.

The decision comes after Council opted to temporarily co-locate the Napier City Library at the rear of MTG, to be accessed primarily via the Louis Hay doors on Herschell Street, with wheelchair and pushchair access through the museum.

“Removing entry charges is a great decision, and eradicates any barriers for those who wish to move easily between the two co-located facilities,” says NCC’s Director Community Services Antoinette Campbell.

“It opens up MTG which has sometimes struggled to attract the breadth of the community to it, to a completely new audience. It’s an entirely appropriate decision and should be popular with the community.”

MTG Director Laura Vodanovich: "We're delighted to see the entry charges removed from the Museum so that it can truly become a community facility that is accessible to everyone. We are looking forward to welcoming the Library into the building early in the new year..."

NCC first began looking at alternative venues for the Library after a detailed seismic assessment found that NCC’s two administration buildings fell well short of New Building Standards (NBS). After exploring a number of CBD options, the MTG was chosen as the most cost-effective. To offset lost revenue from entry fees, Council is now looking into other income generating opportunities. “And there are a number of potential efficiencies from being housed together – such as lower power bills,” adds Ms Campbell.

MTG Director Laura Vodanovich welcomes the decision made at Council today. “At MTG we are delighted to see the entry charges removed from the Museum so that it can truly become a community facility that is accessible to everyone. We are looking forward to welcoming the Library into the building early in the new year and to exploring the synergies between the Museum and the Library and what this can offer to the community.”

All visitors will be able to access MTG Hawke’s Bay free of charge from Monday 2 October.

At the same meeting, Councillors also adopted a Statement of Proposal for the Civic Site Optimisation, which will be publicly consulted on from 4 October until early November 2017. In essence, the proposal will allow NCC the ability for one half of the site on which the two seismically-prone buildings sit to be used for a commercial purpose, if it elects to, in the future. All Council staff and activity are able to be comfortably accommodated on the other half of the same site, and in one building.

A public meeting will be held on Tuesday 10 October 2017, at which the Statement of Proposal will be fully explained, the Library move to MTG Hawke’s Bay discussed, and the options for development talked over. More details will be advertised next week. All are welcome.

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