The Stage

Hall to attend public forum on Rose of Kingston’s £3.4m grant

Published Friday 14 July 2006 at 13:35 by Nuala Calvi

Peter Hall, future artistic director of the Rose of Kingston theatre, is to join council leaders and answer questions from the public next week over the decision to provide an extra £3.4 million of taxpayers’ money for the long-awaited venue.

The event is seen as an attempt to counter criticisms about a lack of public consultation about the project, the cost of which has spiralled after negotiations with a local billionaire backer fell through.

However, opposition councillors have described the meeting as “window dressing” after the decision to make the extra money available has already been taken.

Howard Jones, leader of the Conservative group, commented: “It will be interesting to see how much they will answer. People will be asking about the business plan, which [the theatre trust] has not made public. Up until now they’ve refused to discuss the actual finances in public so we were unable to delve into the nitty gritty of it.”

The ruling Liberal Democrat councillors say the extra money will be recouped by encouraging local businesses to become shareholders in the theatre.

Their plan was put under the microscope at a recent scrutiny meeting, at which the trust’s financial director David Fletcher said he was confident the venue would be able to survive without further public subsidy once it was open.