Tower Arts campaign progress

As you may have read in the Chronicle, the decision to end the Tower Arts arts programme now looks likely to be delayed to December 7 with a full ‘options appraisal’ and an extension of programming for Spring Season

The original decision was amazingly bad – premature, half-baked and made without any consultation. There should have been a full options appraisal at the start of the project – it’s good that finally there is going to be one. We now need to ensure that it is genuine. It must rigorously explore all the possibilities to maintain or improve arts provision in Winchester and not just be a paper exercise or a fig leaf to justify continuing with their current plan.

It’s great that John Tellett will be able to continue programming in the short term, although it’s essential that the new plan ensures proper programming for the long-term.

The Tower Arts campaign group have done a brilliant job. Our county council team has also worked very hard to get this decision changed. At last there’s a chance that local people may be listened to and that the original, extremely poor decision will be reappraised.