'Philistines' threaten Edinburgh science festival

Published on Thursday 26 November 2009 21:40

ONE of Edinburgh's major festivals is threatened with the axe after organisers revealed they were faced with a huge funding cut.

Officials at the capital's 21-year-old science festival have warned the event is likely to be wound up if the city council goes ahead with a 20 per cent cut in its grant.

Staff are expected to be laid off within weeks and next year's festival programme is likely to be drastically scaled back.

The proposed cut in funding has emerged following months of talks between councillors and senior officials to identify some 90 million of savings over the next three years.

An open letter has been sent to councillors warning that the "very existence of the festival" from 2010 onwards is now in serious doubt.

The Scotsman revealed earlier this month how the city's festivals were braced for funding squeezes over the next few years due to problems raising sponsorship and public funding cuts.

It is thought the science festival has been singled out due to its relatively low profile compared to the likes of the film festival, the Fringe and the Edinburgh International Festival.

The science festival takes place at a string of major venues like the City Art Centre, Assembly Rooms, Museum of Scotland, the Royal Botanic Garden and Edinburgh Zoo. It is the biggest event staged in the capital during the first five months of the year – attracting 70,000 visitors this year – and is believed to be worth 2million to the capital's economy.

The two-week event, launched in 1989, was the world's first ever celebration of science and technology, and it is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. But councillors are said to be unsure of the value for money the city gets for the 165,000 annual grant. Although the council insisted yesterday that a final decision on the festival's funding would not be taken until February, festival officials want the proposals rejected as soon as possible to secure the event's future.

In a letter to the council, David Milne, current chair of the festival, said: "We are extremely disappointed that a recommendation has been made to reduce the festival's funding by 20 per cent.

"The council's grant supports the infrastructure of the organisation – the staff to devise the events and raise sponsorship and grants. Six people run the festival and it needs this number of staff to raise sufficient external money to operate sustainably.

"Our financial year runs until 31 July and this reduction will impact upon us this year, affecting the delivery of the 2010 festival programme. The impact in 2010/11 would be more severe and would open a gap in funding which the board may feel cannot be made up from elsewhere and would threaten the very existence of the festival."

Labour councillor Gordon Munro said: "This does show that the city is truly in the hands of philistines. The science festival has given the city exposure all over the world and has given great return for the funding it has had."

Phil Wheeler, the city's finance leader, said: "We are facing extremely tough budget decisions due to the scale of the financial challenge being experienced by the public sector. Our focus must be to protect essential frontline services and ensure that we continue to deliver value for money for Edinburgh's citizens."