Rother cabinet gives BATS and BLODS funding warning

ROTHER Council Tax payers have been subsidising Pavilion productions by Bexhill Amateur Theatrical Society - average attendance 84 people - by Â£7,000 a year, cabinet has been told.

Under similar aid, it has been giving Bexhill Light Operatic and Dramatic Society, which attracts larger audiences, more than 4,000 a year.

The aid is given under what are known as service level agreements - grant aid given in return for an agreed amount of service to the community.

Both organisations had to stage productions at St Peter's Community Centre while the 1,100-seat De La Warr Pavilion theatre was closed during the pavilion's 8m restoration.

A report by council chief executive Derek Stevens recommended agreements giving the BATS 7,620 in the coming year and the BLODS 4,922.

Mr Stevens said that neither society had achieved good attendance figures over the past two years. He said Rother amenities officers would liaise with both organisations during 2008 "to ensure that maximum benefit was realised from the council's financial support for these groups."

Cllr Robin Patten, who had earlier opposed cash aid to other bodies in the district because of the authority's difficult budget-making position, went further.