THE financial fortunes of the Theatre Royal in Winchester have been transformed in the last year.

The new boss said the surplus this year was set to wipe out the £90,000 deficit that had accrued over six of the last seven years.

Chief executive Deryk Newland, who took over in March 2017, unveiled his vision for the theatre including a £750,000 revamp of the Jewry Street venue over the next three-four years.

Work would be done to the cafe, bar and box office and improvements also include air conditioning, live streaming and LED lighting to make it both more comfortable and cheaper to run.

Mr Newland told the Town Forum last Wednesday that the venue needed to invest in the infrastructure to allow it to increase its revenue earning potential.

His plans include revamping the area between the theatre and the Discovery Centre, including the bottom of Tower Street.

The theatre had made a deficit, or loss, for six of the last seven years. “Clearly that was unsustainable and put the organisation at some risk.”

Mr Newland said: “We need to increase footfall and the ‘daytime offer.’ We can no longer appear to be closed in the day. We need to make the theatre feel more accessible. It needs to stop feeling scarey to come inside. We have more to do to place the theatre at the heart of the city and the district.

“We have to be bold and we have to be brave to secure this organisation in the decades to come.

“We won’t just be a hall for tribute bands. We are an artistic organisation with artistic intentions.”

The reasons for the improved performance is an increase in shows, “sweating the assets” and tighter financial controls.

Mr Newland acknowledged that maintaining the financial improvements would get harder. But now it could show to potential funders that it had stabilised its finances.

His predecessor, Mark Courtice, had looked at increasing the number of seats from 400 to around 475 but Mr Newland said the benefits of such a small increase would be limited. The major shows that always sell out such as top comedians usually see the theatre only getting about 25 per cent of the income.

There are five new trustees and a new chairman of operating charity the Live Theatre Winchester trust, Steve Gates, the former boss of Winchester-based Denplan.

Among the other changes have been a five-year partnership with the university to better retain young graduates.

On the Hat Fair he said the theatre was committed to the move to North Walls for the five year duration of the business plan, enabling greater revenue to be made by charging stallholders because of the increase in apace.

Mr Newland said: “We did not take the decision lightly because of the history. Oram’s Arbour is a beautiful spot with a history of community gatherings for many hundreds of years. The reason was partly due to capacity. North Walls is larger and it is flat. There were real challenges about what acts could be presented on that slope.”

City councillors were delighted to hear the news. Dominic Hiscock said: “”This is brilliant work, well done. It is great what you have done.”

He asked about the Woolly Hat Fair and Mr Newland said its future depended on a grant funding from the city council.

Cllr Guy Ashton said: “I am delighted to see the financial transformation, a fundamental turnaround.”

Cllr Ian Tait welcomed the news: “I remember a chief executive who said ‘if you don’t continue funding us we will close down.’ So I am pleased to hear what Mr Newland has said.”