Positive updates in Morpeth Town Council's assets report except for the Town Hall

The document – published for members of the Finance and General Purposes Committee at its meeting earlier this month – is positive about St James’ Community Centre and The Pavilion Café and outdoor area, but there have been “very few bookings” for the Town Hall other than weddings.

Potential future events have also been mentioned.

The start of the report is as follows: “St James’ Community Centre continues to be utilised by the regular groups.

“The hall was used for February half term activities, which were run by Barnabas. Sessions included computing, problem solving as well as arts meets maths.

“The Town Hall continues to be a popular wedding venue and is available for hire as normal. However, there are very few bookings in the building.

“The building remains closed when not booked for a private booking or a wedding.”

In the latest Environmental Health inspection for The Pavilion, which opened in 2021, it received the highest possible score of five stars. As for financial performance, it is currently breaking even.

The section of the report about the café also included the following: “Customers often comment on how lovely and hard-working the team are – they are a huge selling point as customers are coming back time and time again to see them.

“We regularly have new offers to try and attract customers.

“We have increased our presence on social media and continue to push our presence through traditional media, as well as affixing new signage throughout Carlisle Park. Despite this, we still often get customers remarking that they did not know we were here.

“A new Instagram account has been started to go along with our other social media account, which has been received positively.”

The events section of the report included the following: “The Tipi at the Pavilion proved to be extremely popular over the Christmas period. We are hoping to expand this offering and are currently working with the team to see what can be achieved.

“The Events Working Group is hoping to expand the number of events throughout the year. This includes potentially hosting an outdoor cinema event and an ice rink at Christmas. These are currently being costed.”