Spared the axe? Comedy venues could survive arts funding cut

A string of North East comedy venues could be spared the axe after shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman said Newcastle City Council will not implement the proposed 100% cut to its arts budget.

In November the council released plans to completely remove funding to all arts organisations in the city by 2016, including the Newcastle City Hall, Theatre Royal and Live Theatre.

But after a series of campaigns condemning the cuts – backed by comedian Ross Noble [pictured] and other prominent North East figures – deputy Labour leader Harman said yesterday the council would retain its arts budget in some capacity.

She told The Journal: “The reality is there is not going to be a 100% cut to the arts in Newcastle.

“Across the board, whether it comes to capital funding or revenue funding they will be supporting the arts.

“I can’t give you the nitty-gritty: it’s a bleaker picture than it has been – that’s inevitable because of what the Government’s doing. But they will not be cutting 100%.”

The council’s proposals  – meaning over £39.3m worth of grant cuts (£90m overall) – have been available for public consultation for the past three months, while negotiations continued between North East Arts Council bosses and council leader Nick Forbes.

And those talks look to have been promising, with Arts Council director Alison Clark-Jenkins hopeful Forbes will continue to fund the arts in some form.

Clark-Jenkins said: “The consultation process hasn’t finished but I left the meeting [with Forbes] with an invitation to work with Tony [Durcan, director of culture, libraries and lifelong learning] and his team to look at the kind of funding that is available.

“That would be some clever use of some existing money but it could include some revenue, so when councillors come to make their final decisions they’ll have on the table a plan for continuing to fund arts and culture but at a lower rate.”

The final budget papers will be published on Friday afternoon.