A FORMER Farnham town councillor claims Waverley Council has passed up an opportunity to re- establish the Redgrave Theatre on a sound financial footing without even bothering to reply to approaches. Peter Marriott, an independent councillor until he lost his seat in the May elections, made his comments after reading council leader Richard Gates' view that resurrecting the theatre would be a heavy burden on council tax payers. Mr Marriott referred back to an outline business proposition he submitted about 18 months ago to all 57 Waverley councillors and senior Waverley officers. "The proposal involved a nursery school group, Active Learning, in conjunction with a well-known property development company, which was prepared both to purchase Brightwell House, refurbishing it for use as a school, and also to make a contribution of about £0.5m towards the refurbishment of the Redgrave. "A key element of the scheme was the very generous offer by Sir Ray Tindle to exchange the equity of Church House in Union Road with the Waverley-owned Redgrave Theatre, which he planned to give to the theatre management company at a peppercorn rent." The proposal also included wrapping additional commercial space onto the theatre building, which made the idea unpopular with pressure groups in the town. But according to Mr Marriott, only one Waverley councillor took the trouble to respond to the scheme, and there was no response at all from the officers, "not even a 'thanks, but no thanks'". He added: "As we learned last week, Church House has now been sold to the Vineyard Church. Also, because of the total lack of interest in the scheme from Waverley, Active Learning is currently considering another site in Farnham. "The opportunity to resurrect the Redgrave has therefore passed by, much to my disappointment and that of members of the theatre association and others. "We were originally told that changes to the East Street plans could not be entertained, and therefore the theatre could not be included," Mr Marriott pointed out. "It is ironic that there are now substantial changes being considered. Perhaps if there had been a more concerted effort to support the proposal by the various lobby and focus groups in the town, we might have been able to put much more pressure on Waverley to keep the theatre alive as a self- sustaining asset to the town." Mr Gates told The Herald that he recalled there was a proposal submitted during the last administration of the council. But he believed it was "more of an idea" than a detailed plan and that it had never come up for discussion by councillors. The leader said that the figure of £6 million mentioned in the past as the likely cost of renovating the theatre might be an over-estimate, but the nursery school plan would clearly not address the financial costs.
