A Statement about The Halls

Norwich Arts Centre has, for over 14 months, been involved in the procurement process initiated by Norwich City Council to take on the day to day operational management of the Halls, a 14th Century priory, now event venue, in the heart of Norwich. The Halls has been undergoing an extensive multi million pound development.

We are aware that Norwich Theatre and other organisations were also submitting tenders. The basis of our tender was to collaborate with other cultural partners in the city, to programme a wide range of events at The Halls, sharing both the risk and the rewards. Our vision of a ‘Southbank Centre’ for the East would have created a cultural hub that cemented Norwich’s position as the leading cultural City in the East of England.

In October 2024 we were informed that we were the successful bidder, awarded by a points system, which examined the cultural and financial merits of all the tenders. Just as the award was about to be announced we were told that an unsuccessful bidder had launched a challenge which they based on the administration of the procurement process.

Following the challenge the council decided to re-run the procurement process. On 16th May we were informed that we had again won the tender with our renewed bid, which addressed all the requirements of this second process. Once again, we were subsequently informed that an unsuccessful bidder had launched a challenge. This was later identified as Norwich Theatre whose board includes current Leader of Norwich City Council Mike Stonard and former Chief Executive Dr Laura McGillivray MBE.

These multiple challenges by Norwich Theatre have understandably put the council in a difficult position. Further challenges followed by an extended court process would have been financially demanding for the council with additional lawyers’ fees and executive time potentially costing hundreds of thousands of pounds. The council had to consider if it would be prudent to spend public money defending and justifying their decisions.
Thus, as we understand it, they decided to terminate the process.

In recent years Norwich Arts Centre has successfully run an exciting and rich programme of events despite the severe restrictions to funding for cultural organisations. We have been widely recognised as one of the most successful arts centres in the country.  We believe we would have been ideally placed to re-envisage The Halls as the biggest arts centre in the East of England. We know the building well having already run our own highly successful events there.  We won a previous tender process to run the bar at The Halls, which we did successfully in the lead up to its closure for redevelopment. We know the building and what it can achieve.

We are extremely disappointed that this opportunity to further develop a vibrant and important cultural resource for our fine city, maximising the benefits of the excellent capital investment in the building, has been lost due to the tactics of a much larger organisation. NAC entered the tender process each time in good faith and trusted that decisions, made objectively on the merits of our bids, would be recognised and upheld. In this time of uncertainty for all publicly funded bodies, including city councils, it is sad that Norwich Theatre could not respect the awards and the potential for great collaborations and sound financial management that they entailed. However, we hope that our ambition for city-wide cultural partners to work together can still be salvaged and we will continue to act in good faith to achieve that goal.

Pasco-Q Kevlin
Norwich Arts Centre Director