The White Elephant Enclosure will tonight see the opening performance of the Re-enactment Theatre Group’s Pantomime, which runs until Saturday.
Tickets for the shows have sold well, which is unsurprising as the Re-enactment Theatre Group runs regular weekly group sessions, at a cost of £55 per term, in the WEE for budding young actors from across the Somerset area and will thus have garnered support from friends and family of those involved as they will want to see the fruits of their payment.
What is still Top Secret about this particular booking is whether or not the Re-enactment group has been given the community hire rate, which is around 50% cheaper than the commercial rate.
Why should this matter? After all, if the group members are local then surely this is a Community User Group. Except it isn’t. The Re-enactment Theatre Group is a commercial business, so as such it should be paying the full hire fee. If this isn’t the case, then residents of Smalltown and Dullbridge are subsidising, via their Council Tax, a company to make a profit. In effect, this should make us all shareholders and entitled to a share of the profits from the income. Someone will be gaining from the ticket sales and it’s fair to say it won’t be the WEE, Smalltown and Dullbridge Town Council or the residents.
And if you think this is an excusable example of our money being used inappropriately by SaD Town Council to prop up this White Elephant, then you need to read on.