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| Political stunts and pink hats in Newcastle | Political stunts and pink hats in Newcastle |
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| Since being quoted (Culture clash as threat of 100% cut in arts funding divides city, 30 January) describing Newcastle's approach as a "political stunt", there's been some misunderstanding about what I meant by that phrase (Letters, 2 February). Yes, local government is being treated disproportionately harshly by this government, in terms of both powers and finance. Yes, that effect is hitting many of the major metropolitan councils (mostly Labour-controlled) disproportionately hard. Yes, as a result they are having to make such deep cuts, on top of so many previous deep cuts, that sustaining core and statutory services is now very hard. | Since being quoted (Culture clash as threat of 100% cut in arts funding divides city, 30 January) describing Newcastle's approach as a "political stunt", there's been some misunderstanding about what I meant by that phrase (Letters, 2 February). Yes, local government is being treated disproportionately harshly by this government, in terms of both powers and finance. Yes, that effect is hitting many of the major metropolitan councils (mostly Labour-controlled) disproportionately hard. Yes, as a result they are having to make such deep cuts, on top of so many previous deep cuts, that sustaining core and statutory services is now very hard. |
| However, cutting 100% of Newcastle's external arts budget and closing the city's only concert hall and half its libraries to save some £1.6m of the £100m saving target is not an inevitable result of the total cut. It is a choice, and in my view a badly advised, short-term choice given all the different kinds of payback local people get from those relatively tiny investments, and also the £250m spent over the past decade building up NewcastleGateshead as one of the UK's most admired cultural centres. Remember, NewcastleGateshead came a reportedly close second to Liverpool in the choice of European capital of culture for 2008. And of course if council revenue support disappears from arts organisations, so does the Arts Council's. | However, cutting 100% of Newcastle's external arts budget and closing the city's only concert hall and half its libraries to save some £1.6m of the £100m saving target is not an inevitable result of the total cut. It is a choice, and in my view a badly advised, short-term choice given all the different kinds of payback local people get from those relatively tiny investments, and also the £250m spent over the past decade building up NewcastleGateshead as one of the UK's most admired cultural centres. Remember, NewcastleGateshead came a reportedly close second to Liverpool in the choice of European capital of culture for 2008. And of course if council revenue support disappears from arts organisations, so does the Arts Council's. |
| I have nothing but sympathy for the ghastly financial choices councils throughout the land are facing, but as a political means of pushing this flinty government into a change of heart over council spending this Newcastle campaign appears to have completely failed, and in the process caused entirely avoidable grief and mistrust here after a decade of very close, symbiotic and collaborative relations. That was the context for the quote Charlotte Higgins attributed to me. Anthony Sargent General director, The Sage Gateshead | I have nothing but sympathy for the ghastly financial choices councils throughout the land are facing, but as a political means of pushing this flinty government into a change of heart over council spending this Newcastle campaign appears to have completely failed, and in the process caused entirely avoidable grief and mistrust here after a decade of very close, symbiotic and collaborative relations. That was the context for the quote Charlotte Higgins attributed to me. Anthony Sargent General director, The Sage Gateshead |
| • Harry Pearson is right (Travel, 2 February): you can have a good time in Newcastle without having to wear a pink cowboy hat. He recommends Newcastle's post-industrial Ouseburn's bars, galleries and the Seven Stories centre for children's books (child's entry £5.50). But if the unnecessarily savage cuts and closures the council proposes for our free libraries, theatres, City Hall music venue and the beautiful Victorian Turkish Baths are approved in March, I'm buying a Stetson in fuchsia and a hip flask. There'll be nothing else to do downtown. Joan Hewitt Tynemouth, North Tyneside | • Harry Pearson is right (Travel, 2 February): you can have a good time in Newcastle without having to wear a pink cowboy hat. He recommends Newcastle's post-industrial Ouseburn's bars, galleries and the Seven Stories centre for children's books (child's entry £5.50). But if the unnecessarily savage cuts and closures the council proposes for our free libraries, theatres, City Hall music venue and the beautiful Victorian Turkish Baths are approved in March, I'm buying a Stetson in fuchsia and a hip flask. There'll be nothing else to do downtown. Joan Hewitt Tynemouth, North Tyneside |
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