Council won’t give up on ‘once in a lifetime’ theatre funding

Somerset Council has pledged not to lose a £10m grant to redevelop the Octogan Theatre in Yeovil despite the project being put on hold due to rising costs.

Plans to turn the theatre into a ‘flagship arts venue’ were initially expected to cost £23m, with a grant from Arts Council England (ACE) providing £10m and the remainder due to come from external borrowing. But councillors paused the project to evaluate cheaper options for the site after the estimated cost rose to £30.7m.

However, changes to the plans to make them more affordable could mean the grant from ACE would be pulled, and the council would need to rebid for the money with an updated business plan. 

The deputy leader of Somerset Council, Liz Leyshon, said in a BBC report the original ACE grant was something “none of us have ever seen in our lifetime before” and promised that councillors would “not let that opportunity go”.

She also defended the authority’s handling of the matter, adding: "People in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Arts Council are well aware of challenges to big projects in other arts venues across the country, so they know, I'm sure, that we're being responsible here.

"It is our responsibility to come up with, through the options appraisal, an alternative business case that can achieve the same outcomes, but with a lesser pressure on the council's overall budget."

Funding for the original project included a £16.3m loan from the Public Works Loan Board at 1.5%. After councillors were told that the rate had increased to  5.6%, with repayments expected to reach £1m annually, the plan was deemed “unaffordable”.

Leyshon said the council faced “huge” budget challenges but upheld the council's commitment to arts funding. She said: "People of all ages must be able to have happy, healthy, fulfilling lives, and the opportunity to either perform or be in the audience is a part of that prevention agenda."