http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/jul/13/marlowe-theatre-canterbury-city-council
What an eye-opener! A few quotes from the article to whet your appetite.
If the public sector does not invest in infrastructure, no one else is going to do so," said Colin Carmichael, the city council's chief executive. "To be honest, we would make the same decision to go ahead if we were taking it now. This says we've got confidence in this place, come and invest here."
When city councillors, from all parties, voted to press ahead with the project two years ago, they knew the recession was biting but decided to go forward anyway as a way of boosting visitors to the city centre in the evenings and revitalising tourism and business in east Kent as a whole.
John Gilbey, Tory leader of the city council, donned a hard hat and fluorescent jacket to look over the site where builders and decorators remain hard at work, said: "Fifty councillors from all parties stood up and were counted. This has been a long-term ambition and this is a long-term gesture. We have had our reductions in funding too, but we have rationalised our services. Nobody will be able to point their finger at us and say we are abolishing essential services to build this theatre."
Canterbury received a cut in central funding of £2.7m this year, with a further £1.4m to come next year, equivalent to a 20% reduction followed by a further 13%. It has made savings of £2m and is sharing services with other local authorities. Not only is there a theatre, but a new library and art museum are also rising in the city, a further £13m in public expenditure. The council put up £17m towards the theatre, the county council a further £2m and more than £5m has been raised from trusts, business and private donations, with only £600,000 left to raise. The calculation is that, whereas the old theatre brought revenues of £13m a year to the city, the new one will increase that to £22m.
Canterbury received a cut in central funding of £2.7m this year, with a further £1.4m to come next year, equivalent to a 20% reduction followed by a further 13%. It has made savings of £2m and is sharing services with other local authorities. Not only is there a theatre, but a new library and art museum are also rising in the city, a further £13m in public expenditure. The council put up £17m towards the theatre, the county council a further £2m and more than £5m has been raised from trusts, business and private donations, with only £600,000 left to raise. The calculation is that, whereas the old theatre brought revenues of £13m a year to the city, the new one will increase that to £22m.
I take my hat off to Canterbury City Council: a total of £38.6 million on regeneration in Canterbury.
Now, look at Tunbridge Wells. The council has been scratching around for years and still we have no emerging picture of what it intends to do about town centre regeneration. Where is the vision and dynamism to drive forward projects on even half the scale of Canterbury?
For too long the council has been paying homage to the aspic brigade. Sadly the main opposition party in Tunbridge Wells, the Liberal Democrats, is even more reactionary than the Conservative majority. Liberal Democrats are engaged in a tawdry vote-grubbing exercise with no regard to the long term economic welfare of Tunbridge Wells.
When plans for the regeneration of the civic complex are published for consultation let us hope the plans bear some resemblance in approach to that of the forward looking councillors in Canterbury. I live in hope...................
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