Council cut-BACs
London venue at risk
One of London’s most successful incubators of new comedy is facing closure because of funding cuts.Battersea Arts Centre most famously developed Jerry Springer: The Opera before its Edinburgh and West End runs, and is hosting a comedy festival from this week.
But South London’s Wandsworth council has decided to cut the centre’s funding from £100,000 a year to zero.
Not only that, the council will charge the BAC £270,000 in rent and running costs on its venue – formerly the borough’s town hall - from May. Previously they had paid only a token peppercorn rent.
The total effect of £370,000 is almost a third of the centre’s annual turnover and would, venue chiefs say, render the operation unviable.
The threat was raised in the Commons last week when the local MP asked Tony Blair a question to Tony Blair in Prime Minister's Question Time.
The Prime Minister said: ‘Battersea Arts Centre does a fantastic job. They should do everything they can to keep it open. It should be kept open.’
However the Conservative-controlled council blames central government cuts that had forced it to ‘make some very difficult decisions’.
A spokesman for the centre said: ‘We are seeking a meeting with Wandsworth Borough Council to ask them reconsider the value of BAC to the borough.’
French and Saunders, Harry Hill, Paul Merton and the League of Gentlemen are among the acts who have played the venue en route to fame.
Published: 21 Jan 2007
