Dunstable's Grove Theatre could be at risk as council faces £17m funding cut

Central Bedfordshire Council has listed its loss-making theatres as a possible future way to make savings in response to government funding cuts.

A review of both the Grove Theatre in Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre is being suggested by the local authority, as a meeting heard the losses run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

And while there’s no funding cut in this year’s budget, it hasn’t been ruled out for the future.

Independent Aspley and Woburn councillor John Baker told its executive the government’s “£17m Christmas cut” increases to £28m and then £33m in year three.

“Despite this funding shortfall, we’re proposing a balanced budget across all three years without drawing on limited reserves,” he explained. “We’re still protecting services, while increasing the budgets for children’s and adult services.

“We were planning an £8.5m surplus, but this has been used to reduce the impact of our government cuts. Further savings are required, which include managing vacancies, possible voluntary redundancies and reviewing the local council tax support scheme.

“We’ve published a set of services to review for further savings, which aren’t factored into the budget at present. But they’re areas we must now explore to fulfil the government’s extra cuts in years two and three.

“With one of our theatres running up losses of hundreds of thousands a year and largely hosting tribute acts, we need to have a thorough review of theatre operations to work out whether this is the best use of public money when we’re making savings elsewhere.

“We’re meeting with town councils to see whether they can adopt a more active role in running some of these local services.

“If areas of the budget don’t satisfy council, then this list will need to grow,” he added. “We may need to throw in bus subsidies or other options that we’d like to protect, such as sustainability or planning enforcement.

“There’s no magic money tree for us and, as we know, Luton has accepted our funding. It owns an airport and we don’t.”

Liberal Democrat Leighton Linslade South councillor Emma Holland-Lindsay said: “We were really shocked to see this emerge on Christmas Eve.

“I can tell you more than 1,500 Leighton Buzzard residents have expressed their deep concern about the library theatre’s future being in jeopardy by signing our petition.

“So we’re asking the executive to remove the proposed review of the library theatre from this draft budget and listen to the people of Leighton Buzzard, who deeply value this asset and want to see it continue providing access to the Arts and culture in our town.”

Executive member for finance councillor Baker replied: “I can’t help you out by removing that, and there probably should be more items in that list.

“Unless we can find mitigations, we get to the point where these services may have to stop. That’s the position the government has left us in and I can’t be any more positive unfortunately.”

Independent Leighton Linslade West councillor Victoria Harvey asked for “clarity on the theatres that they’re definitely not in this budget”.

Councillor Baker confirmed: “A reduction in funding for the theatres isn’t included in this year’s budget, but other options kick in if members don’t want to accept what’s being set out.

“In years two and three, the government cuts extend. That’s why we’re carrying out this review of a number of items, including the loss-making theatres.”