Council ‘out of tune’ over funds for acclaimed city music venue

The nationally-renowned Albemarle Music Centre is looking at a cut of £411,000, more than three-quarters of the council’s annual contribution.

Hull Music Service also relies on the cash as it supports a venue for 21 music-making ensembles, which themselves now face closure through a lack of funding and staff.

The loss of local authority subsidies will also put teaching youngsters in schools in jeopardy, as the schools will not be able to afford the increased costs.

At a meeting expected shortly, councillors will be debating both the cuts to the music centre – described as “absolutely amazing” and “probably the best in the country” by the Duchess of Kent who taught incognito at a Hull primary school for years – and to the youth service, agreed at its budget-setting session last month.

Councillor Phil Webster will be calling upon the leader of the council Carl Minns to “honour his promise to save this service and do as he said publicly he would do by replacing the original cut in funding”.

Councillor Minns wrote about the Centre on his blog in February.

The Liberal Democrats’ decision to continue funding the Freedom Festival to the tune of £200,000 will also again come under fire.

Coun Webster said: “The centre may be able to open but they won’t be able to run services.

“Coun Minns was sitting there waving his paper as if it were “peace in our time” saying save our music service, but it’s quite apparent now that he hasn’t.

“He also hasn’t had the common decency to respond to a letter from the Duchess of Kent in support of the service.”

Coun Webster added: “What really galls me is that the current administration say they are backing culture by having the Freedom Festival and paying overinflated stars when they are not prepared to put money down to pay for our kids to learn music.”

The secretary of the City of Hull Young Musicians Friends Association, Steve Clark, claimed he was still in the dark as to what would go.

He said: “The only money that the council has put into the pot and at this point in time it is sufficient to pay the rates and keep the lights on. Nothing is definite but it is fair to say that a number of staff have looked at voluntary early termination.”

Chairman John Brien added: “They have said it will definitely open but there’s a difference between open and viable – what’s the point of it being open if there’s no staff to run it and there’s no ensembles?

“If they had a programme of cuts 10 per cent this year and 10 per cent next they could live with it and gradually bring in efficiencies, that would make sense. What everybody needs to remember is that it’s a music centre but it does so much more than just teaching music.”

Organisers recently claimed the Freedom Festival generated £5.27m for the local economy – representing a £10 return for every £1 invested – and attracted 150,000 visitors to the city centre over the festival weekend, 122,000 more than the previous year.

A spokesman for Taxpayers Alliance said he believed the figures had been “plucked from the air”, adding: “Basically it’s the fast food outlets, the burger vans, pubs and bars that are benefiting. If the businesses benefit so much they will want to sponsor it.

“There’s a lot of drunken people wandering about the city centre – is that the image we really want to portray? I think they’ve got their priorities mixed up – if you have private sponsorship, fine, go ahead – but is this something you can really justify spending £200,000 on?”

Coun Christine Randall, who holds the portfolio for education and children’s services, was not available for interview yesterday, but gave a statement saying: “We are still working towards a solution to keep the centre open.”