A good (by Tenbury standard) turnout of local residents met with Serena Croad the Leader of MHDC and others to discuss the proposed 2.95% increase in the budget.
Various subjects were discussed, including MHDCs £140,000 a year support of the Malvern Theatre, and the perceived lack of local financial support in Tenbury. The apparent lack of progress on developing the Tenbury Business Park. Concerns about the concessionary bus far scheme and the lack of joined up local public transport.
29% of Malvern's budget comes via the Council Tax, 38% from Central Government and 33% from other activities such as car parks, etc. Over 50% of the money raised is spent on salaries.
£570,000 is now spent on the Concessionary Fares scheme of which only 30% is Government Funded. Great concern was raised from the floor about how this is audited and accounted for.
It was also noted that NO Town Councillors attended the meeting.
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7 comments:
If MHDC give the Malvern Theatre £140,000 a year, how much do they give the Regal, and how do they justify spending so much on a leisure activity, when nothing seems to be available to help Tenbury's economy recover from the floods?
I asked this very question and the answer is zero. It seems that MHDC have to supply a certain amount of seed money to Malvern Theatre to enable them to apply for grants from elsewhere (i.e the Arts Council) The Regal is owned by Tenbury Town Council, who it seems have never approached MHDC for a Grant? This could not be verified as no Town Councillors were at the meeting.
You say there were no town councillors at the meeting? Are your sure? Surely delegates were sent by the Town Council, the Chamber of Trade and so on? There must have been someone there to officially represent Tenbury? And surely MHDC have given money to bring theatre to Tenbury? Surely they support arts equally across the whole district - they wouldn't make Tenbury pay for their theatre, then fail to pay for ours! Would they? Are you sure you've got this right?
I didn't see anyone that I recognised as a Councillor. I don't recognise all the Committee members from the Chamber of Trade, but as far as I could tell they were not represented. I think MHDC do support some productions at the Regal under the Shindig productions banner jointly sponsored by WCC and others. They also sponsor the Fayres such as Applefest and Mistletoe. It seems "lots" of people travel from Tenbury to Malvern to visit the theatre (I bet they don't go by bus!)
Link to the Shindig website
Lots of films are shown at the Malvern Theatres. So some of that £140,000 'support' will be for films. If MHDC puts money into filmshows in Malvern, it stands to reason that they must also put money into filmshows in Tenbury. Can you find out how much money they give to the Regal for their filmshows, and see how it compares to the money they give to the Malvern Theatres?
Did nobody identify themselves as representing the Chamber of Trade? What about the Civic Society? Or any other local groups?
I was at the meeting. Some councillors were there (Serena Croad, Ralph Madden, Phil Grove, Chris Dell), but no Tenbury Town Councillors. I didn't see anyone representing Tenbury's Chamber of Trade or the Civic Society or the 'Tenbury Area Partnership', which was described as being like a secret society at the meeting.
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