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Dateline: 26th January, 2007
Higher Prices for Scots? The Maltings Arts Centre in Berwick-on-Tweed is considering charging higher ticket prices for non-residents. Berwick Borough Council gives a £254,000 grant to the centre of which £128,000 is to cover running costs and maintenance, but 41% of the users are from outside of the Borough, mainly from Scotland, so it has asked Scottish Borders Council to provide a subsidy of £50,000, approximately 41% of the running and maintenance costs. "It is not equitable that Berwick council tax payers should provide such a large subsidy for regular users outside the borough," Maltings director Maurice Ward told the BBC. However SBC has dismissed the idea as "absurd" and so the Maltings' board is looking at ways of giving a discount to Berwick residents, although they do admit that it would be difficult to do. SBC leader, David Parker, suggests that it would probably be illegal to charge Scots higher prices and points out, "The theatre is in another local authority area and, indeed, in another country. We do not fund theatres in Edinburgh, Midlothian and East Lothian so I do not see why they should be any different. "A lot of people from Berwick and south of the border use the Eyemouth Leisure Centre and we do not charge them extra for it." Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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