"Deceived" - Council condemns university's planned glass centre closure and calls for "immediate" halt
Sunderland’s Labour Group has said the city’s university has presented the costs of repairing the National Glass Centre (NGC) in “a way to deceive the council and its residents”.
The motion to save the NGC from closure, which has been signed by 15 Labour councillors including council leader Michael Mordey, calls on the University of Sunderland to “immediately halt its planned closure and demolition”.
Ahead of a council meeting discussing the issue on Wednesday, however, university chiefs doubled down on their original costings and the absence of a feasible alternative.
The Labour motion has been proposed by Silksworth ward councillor Phil Tye and seconded by Cllr Denny Wilson.
Cllr Tye said: “Our motion to save the NGC is not simply as a building, but a living testament to who we are.
“Sunderland’s story is of glassmaking. For over 1,350 years, glass has shaped our identity, industry, and reputation.
“The university’s decision to close and demolish the centre, on the grounds of financial difficulty and repair costs, has sparked outrage, not because people don’t understand the challenges, but because they feel excluded from decisions that will shape their city.”
Cllr Tye also accused the university of a lack of transparency, something echoed by the city’s Labour Group in their motion statement.
Councillors said: “The council condemns the University of Sunderland’s decision to close the NGC and believes the proposal is flawed.
“The council believes cost proposals set out to remedy some defects with the building and the supplied running costs are presented in a way to deceive the council and its residents.
“We want the university to work with the council to review the decision-making process and how the council and the public were led to believe that this was the only option due to the condition of the building and to review the decision with a view to exploring alternative viable options.”
Responding to the motion, a university spokesperson said: “It’s three years since the university announced the closure. No individual or organisation, including the council, has come forward with a feasible plan to cover the cost of the capital works required, which range from £14m to £45m.
“Nor has anyone proposed a way of covering the £800,000 annual subsidy provided by the university to cover the NGC’s running costs.
"Given nearly 90% of its income comes from student tuition fees, the university must spend the money on its core purposes of teaching, research, and knowledge exchange.
“It cannot afford the ongoing liability of maintaining and operating a building that does not have a sustainable future.
"The NGC will close to the public on 31 July."
The Save the National Glass Centre campaign group “welcome” the motion calling for the closure to be halted and an “independent review into the future viability of the NGC carried out”.
Campaign group member and former civil engineer Nigel Taylor believes “essential works can be done for more like six to seven million”.
In January, the campaign group were joined at the Glass Centre by the building’s concept architect Andy Gollifer who said he “didn’t understand” the repair figures quoted and he “expected it to be in a much worse state than what I see today”.
At the end of November, the city council approved plans for enabling works to begin to create a new glass making hub at the old Peter Smith Antiques building.
The campaign group have raised concerns the motion is last on the agenda, meaning “it risks not being heard before the 7pm time-out and the start of election purdah”.