 |
|
|
|||
|
News
|
|||
|
News
|
Dateline: 17th June, 2010
DCMS Cuts The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has announced cuts of £73m as part of the department’s further contribution to reducing the fiscal deficit. The Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt said, "We are facing an unprecedented financial situation in this country, and it is essential that we act now to reduce the country’s debt. As part of my department’s contribution, we have examined a number of schemes to determine whether they remain a Government priority, value for money, and affordable in the current economic climate. This has involved some incredibly difficult decisions, but the cultural and sporting worlds, like everyone else, urgently need the country’s finances to be returned to a sustainable position." Among the cuts are the A Night Less Ordinary scheme which offers free theatre tickets for those under 26 and the Find Your Talent pilot which is aimed at extending cultural opportunities to under-19s. It is estimated that the ANLO cut will save around £100,000 and the closure of FYT around £2m. Paul Collard, Chief Executive of Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) which administers FYT, said, "We are very disappointed with the government's decision to cut the Find Your Talent pilot cultural offer which has already benefited hundreds of thousands of children and young people across the country. "Since its launch in 2008, Find Your Talent has helped young people to get work experience in the fast-growing creative industries including radio and TV and develop new media or craft skills as well as given them the chance to learn musical instruments, perform on stage, attend performances and experience the great cultural heritage of the country. "Culture can transform communities; strengthen families; increase community cohesion and play a significant role in social and economic regeneration. In the longer term, this programme would have yielded important learning about how such impacts can be delivered most effectively. "Moving forward, any local Find Your Talent projects that have already been committed to will continue. And at CCE we are determined to use the lessons already emerging from Find Your Talent pilot to date and build into our continuing work to ensure that all children can experience and access the diverse range of cultural activity that England has to offer. Access to cultural opportunity is too important to be an accident of geography or the privilege of a minority." The A Night Less Ordinary scheme will be curtailed rather than completely cut as most of the thetares taking part in the scheme agreed to do so for two years to 2011. Initially the scheme was intended to provde 1m free tickets, earlier this year reduced to 500,000 but even this target has not been reached. Other cuts outlined in today's announcement are the Stonehenge Visitors' Centre (£17m), the BFI Film Centre (£45m), the BFI archive digital access sub-project (£2.5m) and libraries modernisation work (£2m). One sport project will be cut: the cnacellation of free swimming will save £5m (as part of a total saving of £40 million from the Free Swimming Programme funding across Government).
Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
|
||
|
|
