Theatres across Suffolk say the County Council's plans to cut funding are shocking and distressing
Suffolk County Council announced they would be making cuts to focus their money towards the most vulnerable people in the region
Last updated 8th Jan 2024
Theatres in Suffolk are distressed over losing funding from Suffolk County Council
It was announced earlier in the week the county council are making cuts to focus their money towards the most vulnerable people in the region.
Theatres that will be affected by this include DanceEast, Eastern Angles Theatre Company, First Light Festival, The New Wolsey Theatre, Primadonna Festival, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, and Suffolk Artlink
They released a shared statement with their thoughts towards these cuts earlier.
We spoke to Owen Calvert Lyons and from Theatre, Royal Bury St Edmunds, and he told us this decision "came out of the blue... it's shocking and distressing for them."
He told us they have worked with Suffolk County Council "for decades" and they have supported Theatre Royal "since its incorporation in 1965."
They told us the funding they received from Suffolk County Council isn't a large proportion of the Council's overall budget.
And if you ignore what museums would have received and focused just on "Arts and Culture, it's £391,000 which is 0.057% of the Council's budget."
Owen believes cutting this from their budget are "not going to fix the problems that they're (the Council are) describing.
What they use the funding for?
We asked Owen what they have previously used the funding for, that may now lose out because of these cuts.
- Their Sensory Youth Theater, which works with disabled children and neuro-divergent children.
- Their Youth Theater, which works with young people aged 8 to 18.
- Their work in after school drama clubs, which works with really isolated primary schools and provides them after school activities.
- Their Doorstep Project, which takes theatre to rurally isolated schools every summer
- The Tiny Plays Big Ideas Project which teaches 10 year olds to write their first play
- Act Your Age which works with older people.
- And their work with charitable organisations
He said this is work that would have been done by Suffolk County Council that they funded the theatre to do on their behalf. Owen also noted it is cheaper for them to do this work then the council
"If you compare it (the theatres work) to more acute services that by the time somebody is in the support of the NHS, uh supporting the care system, those sorts of levels of support are very expensive."
What They Want From The Council
Own revealed he wants the Council to go back and re-think this decision. He accepts they need to make cuts, and will accept a small cut but says a 100% decrease in funding "is devastating and has the potential to put at risk other funding."
"Losing one funder could mean that other donors and contributors choose to spend their money elsewhere and then we're looking at a greater loss to Suffolk."
What's next?
We spoke to Councillor Richard Rout Cabinet member for Finance and Environment at Suffolk County Council, he told us theatres wont be without any funding for another year.
As Suffolk County Council have "found some additional money to make sure that we can continue to fund them for 12 months through 2024-20 25, but that funding will cease at the start of 2025-2026."
Own told us they are currently working on a plan for "raising funds through other means... to raise every penny we can."
They will then look at where they can cut back "and be a smaller organization and ultimately we have to do less."