§ 1. Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome)What proposals he has to support theatre venues in market towns. [135336]
§ The Minister for the Arts (Mr. Alan Howarth)This is a matter for the Arts Council of England—as the main funding body for the arts in England—in collaboration with the regional arts boards, to decide within the context of its current review of regional theatre. The Arts Council has already announced additional theatre funding from 2002–03 and decisions on how this will be distributed will be made in the near future.
§ Mr. HeathI am most grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that reply. I am thinking of the Merlin theatre in Frome, which is excellent but which failed, unfortunately, in a recent lottery bid. Does he agree that the lottery process is not necessarily the right way of providing for capital improvements to smaller theatre venues, precisely because it is a lottery? We need a mechanism to ensure 3 that funds are made available not only to the big—the regionally important—venues, but to those that provide an essential service to local people.
§ Mr. HowarthI would counsel the hon. Gentleman and his constituents who are involved with the Merlin theatre and arts centre not to despair of the lottery. I appreciate the disappointment felt by Merlin when it was unsuccessful in the previous lottery application to the Arts Council. I know that the South-West Arts Board tried to give helpful advice, and I understand that Merlin is putting together a new bid to South-West Arts—that organisation now has more resources to distribute under the regional arts lottery project. I wish Merlin well in that application. Of course, from 2002, the Arts Council and the regional arts boards will be able to start to use the extra £25 million revenue funding—the huge increase that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has provided for theatre.
§ Dr. Phyllis Starkey (Milton Keynes, South-West)Will my hon. Friend consider visiting the new theatre at Milton Keynes? Within a year of opening, it is achieving 85 per cent. occupancy and is a splendid example of the use of public money in extending regional theatre. Will he spread the lessons to be learned from the Milton Keynes theatre to other less successful regional theatre venues?
§ Mr. HowarthIt would give me nothing but pleasure to accept my hon. Friend's invitation. I greatly look forward to having the opportunity to visit Milton Keynes. I am sure that the lessons that can be learned from the success of that project will be eagerly followed by others elsewhere, as she suggests.