A multi-million pound gap in a project to restore a 600-year-old theatre, which Shakespeare himself performed at, has been the subject of a heated debate.
West Norfolk Borough Council is currently trying to work out how to fill a £3.4m gap in its proposed project to refurbish the St George’s Guildhall in King’s Lynn, with the goal of creating a global tourist destination for fans of the Bard.
With a claim to being Britain’s oldest working theatre, Shakespeare performed there in 1593, at a time when the Black Death meant that London’s theatres were closed.
The Tory-led council intends to pay for the bulk of the £12.2m project using some £8.1m from Lynn’s government-funded Town Deal pot of money..
It had hoped to pay for a further £3.4m of the cost using cash from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), but was unsuccessful in its bid, after the NLHF said the scheme came with a “high risk, particularly in terms of sustainability”.
At a council meeting on Thursday, October 13, independent councillor Chris Morley proposed a motion to try and get businesses in the town to contribute towards the project, arguing that they will benefit from its success because of the increased footfall it will bring.
The council’s deputy leader Graham Middleton said he could not support the idea, insisting that the authority still had “easily” two or possibly even three years to find the money from other organisations, and that the businesses were still struggling in the aftermath of the pandemic.
But Labour councillor Francis Bone said he thought Mr Morley’s proposal was a sensible one.
“We do have quite large, profitable businesses in this town, which donate thousands of pounds to our summer events, who would probably be interested to sponsor a significant building like this,” he said.
“I don’t see that it’s a ludicrous idea. If you look at venues such as the O2 [in London], a national company sponsors a massive venue like that.
“So open it out to businesses - not all businesses are struggling, some are making huge amounts of profit, and they might want to have some association and recognition in such a prestigious project like this.”
The proposal was defeated however, with 26 votes against, 19 in favour, and two abstentions.
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