Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

a)  To agree the minutes of the meeting held on the 19^th June 2025.

b)  Matters arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 19 June 2025 were agreed and signed as a true record.

There were no matters arising.

Report of the Director of Regeneration and Economy

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities considered a report of the Director of Regeneration and Economy to consider a request by Culture Coventry Trust to Dispose of Collection Items, in Line with Relevant Policies and Accreditation Standards.

The report stated that as a large municipal organisation, Coventry City Council collects a wide range of historical and artistic artefacts over time, through a combination of statutory archiving, donations and gifts, bequests, loans, commissions, and purchases. In Coventry, a significant proportion of these items are on loan, entrusted to the care of Culture Coventry Trust by way of a Funding and Management Agreement entered-into with the Council (the “Agreement”) and principally housed in Coventry Transport Museum, the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, and in ancillary stores. For one or more reasons, including the proactive management of collections in accordance with the requirements of Accreditation, a museum may plan to periodically review such arrangements and propose to dispose of certain items from the collections in its care.

It was noted that Arts Council England’s (ACE) Accreditation scheme requires participating local authorities and museums to have a Collections Development Policy. The Culture Coventry Trust Collections Development Policy 2024–2027 (attached to the report at Appendix 7) sets out principles, procedures, and decision-making processes for the responsible and ethical disposal of museum collections, ensuring transparency, public benefit, and engagement with stakeholders. In accordance with this policy, approval was sought from the City Council for the disposal of 588 identified collection items (including individual items and small collections) as requested by Culture Coventry.

Further to the officer’s report, Councillor R Bailey, Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, highlighted a number of items of significant cultural value to be reconsidered as part of the disposal. Additionally, Councillor N Akhtar, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, endorsed asking the appropriate scrutiny board to consider future items proposed for Disposal from the Collection as part of the evaluation process.   

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities:

1)  Approves the request by Coventry Culture Trust to dispose of 588 identified collections items, in line with relevant policies and accreditation standards.

2)  Approves that the proceeds received from any commercial sales of disposed items be held in reserves by Culture Coventry Trust, pending re-investment into further acquisitions for the museum collections or in exceptional cases, improvements relating to the care of existing collections, in accordance with the Trust’s Collections Development Policy 2024-2027.

3)  Delegates authority to the Director of Regeneration & Economy or his nominee to oversee the appropriate disposal of collection items by Culture Coventry Trust according to accreditation standards and guidelines following disposal approval.

And additionally:

4)  That officers give further consideration to those items now identified by the Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities.

5)  That in future, the appropriate Scrutiny Board be asked to consider items proposed for Disposal from the Collection and to make recommendations to the relevant Cabinet Member.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of business.