Festival budget slashed as cuts continue (From York Press)

Ryedale Festival budget slashed as cuts continue

3:42pm Tuesday 21st February 2012 in News By Mark Stead, Political Reporter

ONE of the biggest events in Ryedale’s calendar will see its funding cut by £20,000 this year, as public spending cuts continue to bite.

The Ryedale Festival is to lose 80 per cent of the money it receives from Ryedale District Council in 2012/13, with its allocation falling to £5,000, after being listed among a string of groups which will be hit by funding reductions.

The reduction was agreed by the council on Monday night, when it thrashed out its 2012/13 budget, saving £800,000.

Malton Museum will see a £5,000 cut, equating to 78 per cent of its current public funding, while the district’s flagship arts centre, The Shed, will lose £2,832 and Helmsley Arts Centre, Ryedale Folk Museum, Pickering’s Beck Isle Museum and the Pied Piper and Live Music Now schemes also face cuts.

Savings agreed at the full council meeting also include reducing opening hours at the council’s Ryedale House’s reception and only opening its Kirkbymoorside area office one day a week, charging for rats to be dealt with by the authority’s pest control service. reducing funding for the Ryedale Community Transport scheme by £10,000 and axing a Play Rangers scheme.

However, the authority has frozen its element of council tax bills next year after accepting a Government grant, while it also plans to save £628,000 in 2012/13 through its Going for Gold efficiency drive.

In a budget report, the council’s corporate director, Paul Cresswell, said: “The council has put in place a fully integrated financial strategy which seeks to ensure long-term financial stability, the achievement of value for money and funding for priorities.”

Wolds councillor Edward Legard, a member of the Ryedale Festival board who unsuccessfully called for its funding cut to be reduced to 40 per cent in 2012/13, said: “My view is that it is too much, too fast, because we are putting the building blocks in place with the aim of ensuring the festival eventually does not need any taxpayers’ money, so to take 80 per cent away without any forewarning does feel like having the rug pulled out from under us.

“The festival is the only real event in Ryedale which gains national and even international recognition and, as well as the feelgood factor, it brings employment and income. It will be difficult to deal with this cut, but we have no choice and we are now working to plug the funding gap and put on a great show this year.”

Council leader Keith Knaggs said: "I take pride in delivering a council tax freeze for the third successive year and ensuring that, last year and this, although the grants from central Government have fallen by a quarter, our budget for frontline services is down by only two per cent, as well as that the Government's New Homes Bonus has been reserved exclusively for local communities and community-based organisations.

"The council’s service budget has been cut, but the amount of money flowing into services for the community has gone up by a larger amount."