Theatres chief tells of funding shock

THE head of two of Edinburgh's biggest theatres wrote to council chiefs to express his "shock" at controversial funding cuts for opera and ballet groups, it emerged today.

Earlier this year, the ruling Lib Dem/SNP administration scrapped its £83,000 payments to Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet.

The cuts hit the extensive outreach programmes operated in the city designed to give people access to the performing arts.

In an e-mail obtained by the Evening News under the Freedom of Information Act, the chief executive of the Festival City Theatres Trust – which runs the Festival and King's theatres for the council – raised a number of concerns about the plans last March. Writing to corporate services head Jim Inch, John Stalker said: "I wanted to alert you to my concern regarding the recommended removal of funding from Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet.

"It comes as a shock to me, given our own critical standstill funding position, that both organisations have informed me they may not be in a position to maintain levels of service to the Festival Theatre should this decision be confirmed."

City chiefs have insisted they support the work of the national organisations.