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Dateline: 27th January, 2008
Tameside Hippodrome Net Campaign There has been a lot of theatrical activity on the Internet recently, including an e-petition and a campaigning Facebook group, claiming that Tameside Council is about to permanently close Tameside Hippodrome in Ashton-under-Lyne, a claim which has been denied by the Council. The Hippodrome, formerly the Tameside Theatre which opened in 1904, is owned by Tameside Council but has been managed by Live Nation, owners of the Palace and the Opera House in Manchester, for the last fifteen years. Although it has a regular professional pantomime and mid-scale touring productions, it is mostly used by local amateur operatic societies, youth groups and dance schools. In an e-mail newsletter this week, the web site Manchester.com claimed, "The local papers have stated that the council have said the theatre is closing just for refurbishment, this is not true. The staff who work at the theatre have all been given redundancy letters. In addition, no-one has ever been in the Hippodrome to look at what needs doing, so how can a refurbishment take place without knowing what actually needs doing?" Live Nation issued the following statement to the BTG: "Live Nation has successfully managed the Tameside Hippodrome over the past 15 years until the end of our contract in September 2007. To help Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council find a replacement company to manage their venue and as a gesture of good will we extended our contract until 31st March 2008 to help this cause. "We are very disappointed to hear that to date Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council has failed to find a replacement management company to run their local theatre and has therefore decided to close the venue from the 1st April 2008 until a long term view is known." Tameside Council sent us the following statement: "Tameside Hippodrome is closing temporarily on 31st March 2008, so that Tameside Council can survey the building so as to ascertain its structural condition. Tameside Council owns the theatre building, which is currently leased to Live Nation, who has operated the theatre for the past fifteen years. Their lease runs out on 31st March 2008. "Last year the Council advertised for companies to run the theatre and Live Nation did not express an interest in continuing; instead they wished to end their tenure on the 31st March 2008. As we are currently in the process of tendering for a new management company for the theatre, for legal reasons we are unable to comment any further at this stage." David Chadderton
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