Deputy Headmistress, Mayor and Dictator Cllr Eugenie Sherry recently returned from a trip to the opticians where she purchased a pair of rose-tinted glasses to enable her to deliver her annual report from the Smalltown and Dullbridge (SaD) Town Council White Elephant Enclosure Mismanagement Committee.
Cllr Sherry said “The team at the WEE have been working hard to ensure that the venue is a thriving cultural centre for our community and we have an asset which attracts compliments from the users (all 160 of them). Although the many comments about the uncomfortable seats are not exactly complimentary, so I’m not going to mention that here.
Over the past year the WEE has programmed, amongst other things, the following events:- comedy nights, Theatre National Live, tribute acts, Craft fairs and boxing. None of which made a profit, apart from the boxing, which was actually a private hire booking.
The budget setting for the WEE was difficult. The Mismanagement Committee wanted even more money in the form of a subsidy from the Town Council than the Finance and Misappropriation Committee was prepared to give, so we jiggled about with the figures by increasing the expected income and managed to make a saving of £10K. Obviously, in real terms, increasing income isn’t achievable and eventually we are going to have to ask for the extra funding anyway.
The SaD Council expressed the view that there needs to be an achievable business plan for the WEE that, over the long term, reduces the costs to the community, who are fed up of paying £1 out of every £5 of Council Tax for a venue they don’t use.
It is acknowledged that this is a long-term aim, and it will take many, many more years of ever-increasing SaD TC subsidies before the gap between income and expenditure at the WEE narrows, but we will be submitting a business plan that covers the next four years. Having already spent in the region of £1 million over the 10 years that the WEE has been in SaDTC ownership we fully expect that figure to rise to £1.6 million by the end of that period.
In December the Smalltown Culture and Arts Manager (SCAM) resigned. We are currently undertaking a review of staging which will enable us to recruit the right person to manage the WEE.
Oh. Yes. We also received an expression of interest to take on the running of the WEE from Padraig Irishh, local Cinema and Theatre owner. This is a serious offer and one which deserves our attention. However, it isn’t going to get it because the members of the WEE Mismanagement Committee are convinced that they know how to run a successful cultural venue, even though we don’t have so much as a gram of experience between us.
The matter is due to be discussed at the Town Council meeting in June when we will be able to debate how we can best deliver our goals and aims for the WEE, even though the best outcome for residents would be to let Mr Irishh get on with it.”
Sources have told SomersetClive that Deputy Dictator Sherry has already decided that she is not in the least bit interested in allowing someone else to take over running the WEE and has held several secret meetings with Dictator Dullard to discuss ways of removing Cllr Banish Barracuda’s fingers from the purse strings.