The director of a Suffolk museum has said she is "delighted" at Suffolk County Council plans to continue funding the arts and culture industries after proposals to scrap funding were met with heavy criticism.
Earlier this month, the council announced it would be cutting all investment in arts and culture from April next year, scrapping its £500,000 in funding.
On Friday though the council revealed that, due to the government announcement of £600million of funding for local councils, it now intends to propose a new £500,000 project fund to which all Suffolk’s arts and heritage organisations can apply.
Jenny Cousins, director of the Food Museum in Stowmarket, said: "We are obviously delighted that the government’s support have given Suffolk County Council the room to reinstate funding for arts and heritage.
"However a project pot will not solve the core funding issue that organisations like ours face. The value of Suffolk County Council’s funding has been that it gives us the stability to be able to pay for costs like insurance and utilities which cannot be funded from projects.
"I hope that when SCC develops its plans further, that this very real need is taken into account," she added.
Martyn Taylor, chair of the Bury Society who have recently been campaigning against Suffolk County Council plans to close the Bury St Edmunds record office, said: "This is good news for the Theatre Royal in as much they still have the chance of securing some valuable funding.
"We can only hope that SCC will have a change of heart for the historical archives of Bury St Edmunds and West Suffolk to remain here in Bury where they belong."
Jack Abbott, Labour & Co-operative parliamentary candidate for Ipswich, said: “The devil will be in the detail, but on the surface it looks like the Conservatives at Suffolk County Council have finally seen sense and u-turned on their damaging cuts to arts and culture.
“However, we still have no clarity over whether they are still planning to close children’s centres or withdraw funding from housing support, or if they will push ahead with mass redundancies.
"There remains huge concern about the future of a number of crucial public services that so many people rely on."
Many big names in the industry hit out at the plans to cut funding when they were first unveiled, including Dame Judi Dench and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Lord Lloyd Webber said: "Any arts cut of that kind is extremely short-sighted because it tends to mean that city centres become even emptier than they are now. It makes one almost sort of despair."
The impact of the government announcement for further funding for councils will be discussed at Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet Meeting on January 30, where proposals will be explored
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