What do you do with a problem like Shaw House?

The building has cost the council on average £450,000 a year to run since it was re-opened to the public in 2008 following a £6m restoration, and is generating an average annual income of £290,000 leaving a shortfall of £150,000 a year.
The council has admitted that it has struggled to find the balance between providing access to the building and obtaining value for money for the West Berkshire taxpayer.
It is now looking to cut its losses by 75 per cent to £36,500 a year from 2018/19 - but that will still see them lose a minimum of £300,000 over the next four years.
Details of the council’s expenditure has sparked a political tug of war, with opposition leader Jeff Brooks (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) saying the plans have “come too late and lack ambition”.
The council has admitted it could have acted sooner, but leader Gordon Lundie rejected claims that it was wasting taxpayers’ money as “nonsense”.
Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News, Mr Brooks said: “Why has it taken the council eight years to come up with a plan which will still see them lose hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money over the next few years?
“It is losing money every year and it’s disgraceful. The council have got one last chance to get this right. If they can’t do it themselves they should outsource the management to someone with a commercial background who can sort it.
“Not enough is being done to market the place.There is no sign outside saying welcome to Shaw House and not enough people visiting.
"This is the jewel in the crown of West Berkshire and is a unique, historic building. We need to be doing more.”
In response, Mr Lundie said: “I do not think we should be scrimping and saving on the funding of a historical building that we have spent millions on putting it back into public use and I think any suggestion that we are wasting money is ridiculous.”
In May, the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Commission made a series of recommendations on how it thought Shaw House could be utilised more effectively.
Some of the recommendations were to increase the marketing budget from £4,000 a year to at least £20,000 per annum, increase the number of days for which the house is open to the public to 200 and to recruit volunteers to help assist with the running of the house.
The council has agreed to recruit volunteers, but has only agreed to spend a maximum of £10,000 a year on marketing, saying at a meeting of the council’s executive earlier this month that it “simply didn’t have the money in the budget to do so.”
The council says that part of the problem is that it is currently limited to what it can allow the building to be used for owing to restrictions imposed by the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of its agreement to give the council a £4.2m grant in 2003 to help restore the building back to public use.
The restrictions said the building could only be used for ‘approved purposes’, there should be public access to the House for 116 days each year and that car parking should be removed from the immediate vicinity of the House.
Shaw House is currently used as a visitor attraction; as a meeting, seminar and conference venue, office accommodation for a number of council services, and as a venue for marriage and citizenship services. Built for Thomas Dolman in 1581, Shaw House was a private home until 1939 when it was requisitioned by the military for wartime use. The management of the House was transferred to West Berkshire Council from Berkshire County Council in 1995, along with £1m towards the cost of restoration.