Dear All,

This is not strictly a GEM issue but I’m hoping that something similar has happened before and that one of you came up with an incredibly creative solution.

I am in charge of a museum that is situated in the centre of a busy City. It is a Georgian building with Portico and steps leading up to it. We have a problem. For years people have used the portico and steps as a meeting place and somewhere to sit – even though there are a number of seats in the near vicinity. This is not necessarily a problem, however when people sit and block our entrance or disabled ramp it is. The large numbers of people also leave vast amounts of rubbish and can intimidate people who wish to come in to the museum.

There are various groups who tend to sit on the steps – groups of young people (including students and school children), and also local unsavouries of the area. The groups of young people seem to evolve and are not necessarily the same group year on year.

In the evening we have people who sleep under the Portico and who use the side of the museum as a toilet.

This is obviously a problem and seems to be getting worse. The Police do move people on, but say that we are not doing everything to help ourselves. They advise we put railings around the museum and in the meantime implement a section of the Anti Social Behaviour Act.

I am very concerned that at a time when we are trying to encourage all sectors of society in to the museum it is not going to look good that we are banning people from hanging about the front of our building and are planning to put a fence around us.

Any ideas??????? I’m hoping that someone somewhere has been in a similar situation and will have some pearls of wisdom to impart. If you do I would be incredibly grateful to hear from you.

Thanks,

Heather Dowler

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