The Stage

Northcott must start from scratch - administrator

Published Thursday 11 March 2010 at 11:45 by Alistair Smith

Exeter Northcott theatre needs to start again “with a completely clean slate”, according to the administrator who is now in charge of the venue and is calling for the company that ran the theatre to be replaced with an entirely new body.

Ian Walker from administrator Begbies Traynor was appointed last month after it emerged that the regional producing venue was trading with a significant deficit. At the time, its board claimed it had “no choice” but to place the theatre into administration, despite receiving advice against the move from Arts Council England.

According to Walker, the deficit runs to “several hundred thousand pounds” and he is now talking to the theatre’s funders in a bid to find the best way forward for the Northcott.

He told The Stage: “There is a deficiency there and it’s also apparent that there has been a certain amount of falling out between the various stakeholders, which I think means that the only way forward is for a new company to be formed to take this thing over.

“It makes a lot of sense for a new company to take this over with a completely clean slate. It can be new everything - new board, new management, new way the theatre is going to be run. Everything is up for grabs.”

According to Walker, because the company which ran the venue - Northcott Theatre Foundation - does not own the theatre, which is leased from Exeter University, it would be possible for a new organisation to take over its assets for little or no money.

However, he acknowledged that “it would very much be a win-win situation if someone was willing to pay to take over the theatre” because it would mean some of Northcott’s unsecured creditors could be paid back. He stressed that if a new organisation were to take over the running of the venue, current staff would be protected in the transfer.

Walker added: “We are starting to crystallise a way forward which will hopefully take the theatre - I don’t mean the company - out of administration sooner rather than later.”

When the Northcott went into administration at the end of last month, it marked the latest development in an ongoing saga at the south-west theatre.

In 2007, shortly after reopening following a £2.1 million redevelopment, the venue was hit with the news it was to lose its annual £547,000 grant from ACE as part of the 2007 spending round. At the time, the theatre said it faced the threat of closure if the grant was removed. In early 2008, ACE revised its decision. Later in 2008, long-serving artistic director Ben Crocker left the venue and a new senior management team was appointed.

In October that year, the new chief executive Kate Tyrell announced a restructuring of the organisation in a bid to save on running costs. The scheme saw several redundancies made.

However, according to Walker, the organisation appears to have run into financial trouble again because of “excessive spend on overheads” caused by an accounting system which was incapable of alerting the company to the over-spend until it was too late.