I have a great love of theatre. I spent a lot of my early years on a stage and there are parts of me that regret I have never found the time to continue. However, as a publicly elected Councillor I have a duty to protect the interests of the Council tax payers of Kingston.
The Lib Dem run Council have decided to rush through, with no debate amongst either the Council or the public, a £3m bale out of the proposal to build a new theatre in Kingston.
I support the theatre in Kingston. I am sure when it is opened it will be a marvellous addition to the world of theatre and I know with Sir Peter Hall at its helm it will be an enormous spectacle. However, is it the duty of the Council to loan money when there is evidence from across the world of theatre that it will never be repaid?
Should we be making a decision to borrow money to fund the theatre when there are other pressing needs that our schools have?
If it is to be taxpayers money supporting the theatre has anybody in Kingston ever discussed whether the people of Kingston want a theatre producing the type of shows that Sir Peter Hall will produce?
Should a Liberal Democrat administration be rushing through this decision without consulting all councillors and the public when until this moment it has been a partnership approach to the development of the theatre?
Should the Council be giving up an asset to a new private company whose largest shareholder will be another private company registered in Gibraltar? What if that Company's Chairman was found guilty in the French courts of corrpution after the Lib Dem party in Parliament was demanding from Tony Blair this gentleman’s extradition? Please do not misunderstand me, in regard to the theatre I attach no blame to this gentleman and his company as he is an international businessman who feels he is helping the theatre, but should a Council be doing business in this way?
What happens when the theatre comes back for more money next year? Are we going to say 'no' when our total investment to date has been over £7m, if the loans are not repaid?
This is a big deal for Kingston with lots of questions that have yet to be answered. This may be the last chance we have of getting the theatre off the ground but let's not mess it up by not examining properly what we are doing.
1 comment:
Sir
In commercial circles the method for repaying a loan would be as follows. Assume a given figure, in this case £7 million, is to be repaid at the prevailing rate of interest, at present around six per cent per annum, over a period of say twenty five years. Therefore, every year an interest repayment of £420,000 is required,(£7,000,000 multiplied by 0.06) as would be a capital repayment of £280,000 (£7,000,000 divided by 25 years). This is a total of £700,000 per annum.
To put into context how large a sum is, it would take the entire revenue raised from council tax on 509 band 'D' properties (£1375 for 2005/6) every year for a quarter of a century to repay.
I would welcome any clarification as to whether these speculative thoughts are in anyway accurate.
Nevertheless, even if the true cost was only half the above estimated projection this seems an extraordinary amount to pay when world-beating theatre in central London is just thirty minutes travel from Surbiton.
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