South Cambridgeshire prepares for “self-sufficient” community arts

South Cambridgeshire Council is to end the £70k annual funding which currently pays for seven Arts Development Managers to be based in secondary schools, serving both students and local communities. The village colleges have been meeting the cost of community arts for school age pupils, but even this partnership approach has been deemed unaffordable and a one-off £40k fund is being provided instead, with a view to the community arts providers in the district becoming self-sufficient. The Council has recognised that the Arts Development Managers work hard to secure external funding, but said that although time and effort would be committed to help them become independent from Council support, it couldn’t be predicted whether the positions would remain tenable. South Cambridgeshire’s total annual grants budget currently stands at just over £800k– one of the highest for a council of its size – and after the review this will be reduced to just under half a million pounds. Rob Campbell, Head of Impington Village College, one of the schools affected, told AP: “We are naturally disappointed by this loss of funding. When this began, it was thought to be a genuine and exciting partnership around developing the arts and community learning opportunities.  By exiting the partnership now and leaving the full costs to the village colleges, the Council has placed schools in an untenable position, facing serious financial and staffing decisions.”