Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) and Northampton Theatres are in negotiations with their respective local authorities in an attempt to stave off funding cuts which threaten their futures. Wandsworth Borough Council currently supports BAC in south London with annual grant funding of £100,000. The Council proposes to cut this funding from April and, at the same time, to begin charging the organisation rent and running costs for its use of the Grade II* listed Battersea Town Hall site, an estimated cost of £270,000 annually.
BAC, which won the Best Community Contribution Award at Wandsworth Councils Business Awards last year and is home to many celebrated small-scale touring companies and producers, has announced that these cuts, amounting to 30% of its annual turnover, will force the venue to close. Edward Lister, Leader of Wandsworth Council, said, There is no quick fix for the arts centre. It is caught in a financial squeeze that is affecting many Councils in London that have seen their grants cut this year. The Council has to give priority to essential services and the needs of the most vulnerable members of the community. A spokesman for the Council, which has the lowest council tax charge in the country, suggested that support might be reduced to 25% of current levels but emphasised that negotiations with BAC were ongoing.
Northampton Theatres Trust, which runs the towns Royal & Derngate Theatres, is challenging Northampton Borough Councils (NBC) proposal to withdraw £200,000 of funding for 2007/08, rising to a cut of £400,000 in 2009/10. In a statement, the Theatres, which re-opened last October following a £15m capital refurbishment, said, The news brings an immediate capital funding and cashflow problem& Arts Council England [ACE], which invested £6.75m of Lottery money into these buildings, which are owned by the Borough, are withholding payment of £250,000 until they have received clarity from NBC about its intentions regarding maintaining our grant. NBC promised ACE and Royal & Derngate a proper, sustained consultation on the level of the grant and the implications of a cut. However, this has not happened.
The news comes amidst warnings from nalgao, the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers, that local authorities across the country are tightening their belts. ACE is currently amending its local authority partnership agreements, raising fears that councils may take the opportunity to reduce their arts expenditure (AP issue 137, 15 January).
Meanwhile, funding cuts are also threatening the future of Belfast Festival at Queens. Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Gregson of Queens University, which has invested £2.5m in culture and arts activities over the past three years, says the Festival is structurally underfunded and wants to secure its future by building partnerships with other organisations that benefit from it. Describing the Festival as a cultural resource for the region which contributes £6.5m to the regional economy, he has said that the University cannot continue to carry the burden without the support of funding partners who benefit.