Uniquely, it is built into the old Castle wall and the whole of the Castle and its historic grounds should be viewed and managed as one. There are so many opportunities for exciting interpretive display and for many years those opportunities have been missed.

Guildford has an amazing heritage and there are fascinating stories to be told, from pre-history to the present time. The town sits at the centre of a cultural web that comprises some of the great houses and gardens of the past, the legacy of the Arts and Crafts movement in Surrey and of course, our historic Surrey Hills.

We also need to capture the stories of the present. Guildford has been described as the Hollywood of video games, and has been at the core of innovation in 5G telecommunications, space technology, digital health and much more besides.

The Guildford Gaming Festival last month had 2.7 million unique views and Surrey Satellites is the largest manufacturer of small satellites in the world.

The previous administration developed an inspiring vision of a refurbished Museum connecting with the Castle Grounds, not only telling the stories of our historic past and the exciting present, but engaging the community in education and learning to promote Guildford as a centre of arts, history and innovation.

In short, a cultural hub appropriate to Surrey’s market town. This was developed on a cross-party basis and had widespread support within the town.

With some 40-plus arts organisations, our cultural heritage is what defines our town. It provides important social and economic benefits and increases the overall wellbeing of individuals and communities.

As we begin to recover from Covid we must be careful not to take short-term decisions that strike at the very heart of what Guildford is.

Savings have to be made but we need to find a way of achieving this while not destroying the vision that was close to reality before the pandemic struck. Our art and culture is our lifeblood and it is what distinguishes a thriving community from a barren urban settlement.

This principle has clearly been recognised by Rishi Sunak, who has launched the £4 billion levelling-up fund specifically aimed at enabling communities to build museums, libraries and galleries. I hope the council will immediately pursue funding from this source. We have an “oven-ready” project.

Without such funding, the Museum project as recently envisaged will have to be deferred, but a great deal could be achieved with vision and vigour and most importantly with the involvement of our community to make things happen.

The present administration needs to come up with ways of incorporating as much of the previous administration’s vision as possible while obviously paring back if necessary.

I hope the council will respect the value of the assets of which it is the guardian and ensure their long-term future is not impaired.