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Echo Special Report
TORY councilors from Haverhill and surrounding villages let down the town’s Arts Centre by voting against giving it some extra cash for live entertainment, according to town mayor Gerry Kiernan.
Cllr Kiernan said the vote at St Edmundsbury Council’s full meeting last week had left him extremely disappointed.
Labour councilors had proposed an amendment to the council’s annual budget which involved moving £6,000 from the mayoral budget, £6,000 from the Bury Festival growth budget and £10,000 from the tourism budget in the south of the borough, to Create £22,000 for programming at the Arts Centre.
“It would have made the future of the centre a lot easier,” said Cllr Kiernan.
Tory councillors Jeremy Farthing, Tony Sutton, Robert Clifton-Brown, Jeff Stevens, Margaret Warwick and Derek Redhead voted against the amendment
“We were let down by councillors from Haverhill and surrounding areas said Cllr Kiernan.
“It was a simple amendment that would have had no effect council tax or other parts of the budget and it was easy for anyone to support it.
“I think it showed their lack of interest in the Arts Centre. They are just hoping to offload the centre onto the town council and wash their hands of it”
Cllr Kiernan said without that extra money running the centre was going to be difficult for the town council, but he thought they could make age of it.
“It is so important to the town for so many reasons, we have got to try our best,” he said.
Cllr Kiernan said the issue of an endowment had been raised, but he didn’t think it was immediately relevant.
An endowment would give the borough council the chance to use some of their large capital reserves to support the building, but Cllr Kiernan said it would cost just as much to their revenue budget in the end because every £lm they took from reserves meant £60,000 less income in interest.
An endowment had also been suggested for maintenance of the building, which at present costs around £70,000, and which the borough council would still retain responsibility for under the partnership agreement being discussed.
The idea the town council could take over the whole responsibility for the building, including this, with an endowment has been floated, but Cllr Kiernan said that was a separate issue which would only confuse negotiations at present.


IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER


CAMPAIGNERS who travelled to Bury St Edmunds for the full council meeting last week and dominated the public forum with a succession of questions about Haverhill Arts Centre were frustrated by the debate.
The Arts Centre Action Group raised a series of issues concerning the axing of about £50,000 from the centre's budget, almost the entire cost of live arts.
St Edmundsbury’s new programme has slashed live events to a third and will fill the slots with cinema.
The group challenged this view at the public meeting held in the centre in January, claiming it was a recipe for disaster.
At the council meeting, group members asked leading councillors to justify the cuts in relation to the maintenance of growth budgets for the arts in Bury.
Campaigners from villages asked about increased travelling to Bury this implied, in relation to the council’s policies of sustainability.
Council leader Derek Redhead was asked how they intended to maintain the arts programme in the light of a reduced budget.
He reiterated statements about looking for a partner, said he hoped a deal could be struck and assured campaigners of his best efforts to make it happen.
Leisure services committee chairman Cllr Sara Mild-may-White denied any cuts, preferring to define the change as the non-renewal of a one-off grant.
Action group chairman, David Hart said although they welcomed assurances about continued efforts to find a solution, the vote had been frustrating.
“They tried to make out this money was irrelevant, which shows they haven’t looked at exactly how the centre is positioned.
“They seemed to think the £228,000 budget for the centre was generous, whereas it will only cover keeping the building in existence,” he commented.

Cllr Margaret Warwick (Hundon)
SHE was committed to the Arts Centre but felt changes had to be made.
She said a lot of money had been spent on the centre but they felt the programme wasn’t necessarily the best for the people of Haverhill and that was something that needed to be looked at.
She said the town was evolving and the Arts Centre needed to be responsive and to reflect the needs of the new Haverhill.
She said at the moment the programmes were running at a loss but it was wrong to think they didn’t care about the centre when so much had already been spent on it.
‘How can people say we haven’t cared about it?” asked Cllr Warwick.
She said a social survey was being conducted. This would give them a clearer indication of what people in Haverhill might want.
Cllr Warwick said in her view it could be much better but there had to be changes.

Cllr Tony Sutton (Kedington)
This member voted against changes because it was already costing so much to keep the centre open.
He said there was no bottomless pit of funds and would prefer Haverhill Town Council to be responsible for running it with help from St Edmundsbury.
‘They know what the people want” said Cllr Sutton, referring to the town council.
He originally opposed the cuts but that was before he had more detailed figures about the costs involved.
Cllr Sutton felt more could be done to promote the centre to attract more people. Another possibility was to look again at prices charged.
He was concerned if providing more funds for the centre meant an increase in council tax, especially for people who wouldn’t be able to make use of the facilities, but would not like to see the centre closed.

Cllr Jeremy Farming (Haverhill St Mary’s/Helions)
THIS member said more time was needed to discuss funding but they were trying to run a vast range of services, some statutory and some non-statutory, with the money available.
He understood the centre needed to adopt a scatter-shot approach to start with to include as wide a remit as possible, from opera and ballet to Dirty Harry, to establish what would be most in demand.
He said this had been tried for a year with extra funding but quite clearly the arts were very important to them and it was a Conservative administration that opened the centre in
1995.
He emphasized discussions were continuing about securing future funding for the centre.
A possibility was to transfer it to the people of Haverhill so they had more control but admitted this was not straightforward.
He added there was no way this administration would allow the centre to flounder.

Cllr Robert Clifton-Brown (Withersfield)
THIS councillor said both sides at St Edmundsbury Council wanted to see the centre prosper and see it used.
But he said theatres everywhere were having problems and it was the same at Haverhill
He told the Echo the programmes at the centre had been good and they were really only arguing about £60,000, which was the additional amount of money that needed to be raised.
But he said he wasn’t sure the council and the government were the best people to run such things.
Cllr Clifton-Brown described the centre as essential for Haverhill and emphasised that no-one wanted to see it close.
He felt that it would not be too difficult to raise the additional money and went on to comment “nothing breeds success like success".

Cllr Jeff Stevens (Clare)
WE regret that despite calling at Cllr Stevens’ offices, telephoning him on a number of occasions and leaving messages asking if he would call the Echo, he has not contacted us during the three days we have tiled to speak to him. His only remark during the full council debate about the amendment to the council budget was when the recorded vote was taken and he replied “against”. The Editor.

Cllr Derek Redhead (Wickhambrook)
THE council leader said it was their Intention to do all they could to keep the centre open but it was now time to come up with a partnership.
He said last year the centre budget was £160,000 topped up to £283,000 and they couldn’t continue to spend so much money on it. The centre now stands to have a budget of £223,000.
“It’s costing something like £1,000 for every day it’s open,” said Cllr Redhead.
He said one possibility was for the town council to be a partner. The borough council would continue to provide the budget but the town council would run the centre.
“I would like to ta11~ to the people concerned to see what we could do to enable them to do that,” said Cllr Redhead. “We don’t want to see it fold but we can’t keep pouring money in.”
He said councils had to be “enablers and not just providers” and had to look at another way of helping the centre.

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