Festival organisers treated shabbily by council

3:29pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

SERIOUS questions have to be asked about the future of arts funding in the borough after the council pulled funding from the Walthamstow Festival (Guardian, April 24).

Having noticed that the Arts Council grants handed out to all London boroughs total millions of pounds, I was shocked that Leytonstone and Leyton did not even feature in the grants system.

Why should the organisers of the Walthamstow Festival see their funding pulled by the council when nearby Hackney and Shoreditch received nearly £5 million in grants.

It makes me wonder whether Waltham Forest is doing something wrong in not securing a larger slice of the creative cake?

Our borough lacks a cinema, possesses a theatre that looks forlorn to say the least while an arts centre/complex would have fitted nicely on the Arcade site.

If Tim Bennett Goodman thinks the Olympics are cultural (they are big business and sport) then hopefully us culture vultures can expect a building or buildings on the Olympics site to become available when all the athletes have gone home.

N R Gansell, Walthamstow.

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