City should stand up for The Tower (From Hampshire Chronicle)

City should stand up for The Tower

12:08pm Thursday 28th August 2008 in

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SIR - Councillors Snaith and Beckett's recent letters to the Hampshire Chronicle about The Tower ignore the fundamental point at issue: that Hampshire County Council has again misled the people of Winchester.

County council leader Ken Thornber promised £150,000 over three years for a mixed evening programme initially focussing on the Tower. This was to be matched by the city council.

It is now clear that a lot of this money has been diverted away from evening programming in Winchester and very little will go to the Tower.

In fact, over the next three years, £225,000 of funding to performing arts in Winchester will be withdrawn.

No other district in Hampshire is facing such savage cuts.

The county council promised to talk to Tower users on the development of the evening programme.

This has not occurred; the deal has been approved and the autumn programme has been released.

Cllr Snaith makes no attempt to address the funding shortfall. She adds that the promised consultation with Tower users did not occur due to "unforeseen circumstances" without explaining what these were.

Kings' School and Ben Ward have done a great job in putting together an interesting autumn programme.

However, in the next three years over £300,000 of funding will be withdrawn from the Tower.

I hope I am wrong, but I suspect that Kings' will struggle to sustain the quality of programming over time.

The Ashcroft Art Centre in Fareham was saved because the local district council stood up to the county.

It's time that Winchester local politicians started fighting for a fair deal for Winchester!

Going forward, the Tower will need as much support as it can get, so I would encourage all Chronicle readers to give it a try in the autumn.

It could be a case of use it or lose it!

Alistair Marsden, Stanmore Lane, Winchester.