The Lichfield Garrick

A debate on the future of the partnership between Lichfield District Council and the Lichfield Garrick is due to take place behind closed doors.

The Lichfield Garrick
The Lichfield Garrick

The local authority will hand over a £250,000 subsidy to the theatre in the 2018/19 period, down £60,000 from the previous year.

Councillors on the leisure, parks and waste management overview and scrutiny committee will examine the future of the link between the council and the local venue on 16th January.

However, members of the media and the public will be excluded from that section of the meeting.

An exclusion statement on the agenda states: “That as publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business, which would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information.”

However, the documentation does reveal that there will be “joint review of partnership and performance” between the two bodies.

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.

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AnnS
5 years ago

With all the cuts to vital community services, after all these years, it’s about time the Garrick stood on it’s own two feet and stopped using tax-payers money to prop it up.

Steve
5 years ago

Welcome to the Demorcratic Republic of Lichfield, where everything is held behind closed doors. Councillors conevniently forget they are Directors and 200 people in a market square set the local policy that the MP should follow.

Kieran Alford
5 years ago

One way to safeguard the future of the Lichfield Garrick Theatre would be to use some of the building to incorporate an eclectic use arts centre into the complex something Lichfield’s been deprived of since the old now demolished arts centre on Bird Street closed its doors in early 1994 owing to structural problems furthermore the Lichfield Arts Box Office could also relocate to a more disabled friendly office within The Garrick obviously I understand the current Lichfield Arts Box Office at Donegal House is ineligible for modernisation to make it more disabled friendly owing to the fact that Donegal House is a very important iconic grade ii listed building within the city of Lichfield.

AgitatorofPeople
5 years ago

The Garrick funding has already been slashed in recent years, much to the horror of other local theatre groups who were previously considerably subsidised. Lichfield has a large artistic foundation, which can be seen in our local schools, such as the Friary and the South Staffs campus, and the Garrick offers the opportunity for those up and coming artists and technicians to put their learning to test in community shows and via taking part with theatre groups.
It’s a soft target and often not understood by those who think its a high brow activity for those well heeled, but there is little left for the youth of Lichfield and its surrounds.
I would question the use of £1.2 million public money to restore the church in the square with its 200 seat capacity artistic “space” upstairs and ask how we are getting paid back from that investment……

Flossy
5 years ago

Greetings Forward Leisure – who will subject to contract probably takeover as in Stafford Gatehouse & numerous Theatre locations down South. This will save £100K+ PA just on staff who duplicate what is already sucessfully done re bookings etc. centrally at better prices. Hopefully it bring back the Am Dram’s too, who are sorely missed, & despite assurances they have not been replaced by touring shows. In fact the Garrick is dark many more nights than previously, Current Trustees have no recent relevant experience, involving either Leisure or Theatre venues. They rarely attend anything there.. The idea of setting up the Trust was to be self supporting – frankly it has not happened, time is up, & LDC are annually stuck with a subsidy bail out bill as Trust cannot have overdraft facilities.