BORDON'S county councillor has expressed his shock at a "miserly" council grant made to the town's Phoenix Theatre this week. Adam Carew described Hampshire County Council's £3,000 Arts Activity Grant (AAG) - reserved to pay for the delivery of shows - as "miserly", after staff applied for the maximum allowed of £15,000. Mr Carew said he was dismayed at the sum following council officers' positive appraisal of the theatre last year and advice given to its managers on how to make the centre more commercially viable. The council, in its decision, had been critical of the theatre's depleted reserves. But Mr Carew argued these reserves were being swallowed because it was not getting urgently needed day-to-day funding. The Phoenix Theatre receives revenue funding from Whitehill Town Council, which has pledged £17,000 in 2007/08, as well as small contributions from the district and county councils. But Mr Carew compared this amount to the six figure grants made to four theatres run by local councils. Annual grants - partly made by the county council - in excess of £100,000 are received by theatres in Winchester, Fareham, Ports-mouth and Andover, he said. In an interview with The Herald in September, theatre manager Jane Dawes highlighted the severity of this imbalance. She estimated that hundreds of residents in the town benefitted from the theatre's services, whether directly - in the case of the resident professional actors The Phoenix Players - or indirectly. The theatre offers work and work experience to drama graduates and students, which helps them break into their profession, and helps local churches to put on events. The Phoenix Theatre, which has charitable non-profit status and ploughs most of its takings back into its programme, needs an increase in revenue to reverse a trend which saw it run at a loss of £16,000 last year. Although the AAG is made for specific projects and not day-to-day costs, theatre staff say it has remained between £3,000 and £4,000 for several years despite inflation, and therefore represents another running loss to the theatre. Mr Carew said: "If the county council is truly committed to the arts and the regeneration of Whitehill and Bordon, then it should put its money where its mouth is and award the Phoenix the maximum AAG. "The council is well aware of how well the Phoenix does to brighten our community on such a very tight budget. "If significant grant allocations from the county council and other sources are not forthcoming, the Phoenix could end up in serious financial difficulty. "I have spoken to county council officers and agreed that we need an urgent meeting with the Phoenix to discuss the way forward in the coming months." The county council's executive member for recreation and heritage, Margaret Snaith, said: "The Phoenix Theatre was awarded £3,000 for its annual programme of events in the theatre, the same amount as it received last year. "It should also be noted they can apply for further funding for individual projects and festivals in the next round (of funding), which has a deadline of March 31."
