Councillors call to cut Apex costs
DISGRUNTLED councillors have called for a full report into the running of The Apex after sharing concerns over the level of subsidy it is still receiving from taxpayers.
The £18.7 million Bury St Edmunds building opened two years ago but is costing Council Tax-payers more than £736,000 a year to run.
Moves to share management and operational costs with the Theatre Royal as part of a wider West Suffolk Arts Trust are under way.
A business case for creating the new trust will be considered by St Edmundsbury Borough Council within the next two months.
But at a meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee on Wednesday, councillors demanded a full report into the running of The Apex, with a view to cutting its subsidy.
Cllr Ian Houlder, who was one of a number of councillors behind the move, said it was a ‘red herring’ to try to put The Apex, which is owned by the council, in with the Theatre Royal.
He said it was always known that The Apex would need to be subsidised and said it probably always would, but the actual level of subsidy needed looking at.
And Cllr Jim Thorndyke said the council should carry out a two-year review of The Apex ‘so we can get it stood better on its feet’.
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Friday 24 May 2013
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