Arts Centre still high on the agenda says Cllr Mulgrew

Date published: 09 January 2008

Councillor Dale Mulgrew, lead councillor campaigning on the Arts Centre issue, has confirmed that before Christmas a high level meeting was arranged to discuss the arts centre concept and in attendance along with Councillor Mulgrew was the Leader of the Council, Alan Taylor, and senior knowledge brokers from the various stakeholders - including executives from the Council, Leisure Trust and Rochdale Development Agency.

Councillor Mulgrew said: "The huge desire amongst the public of Rochdale to have a new magnificent arts centre in the Town Centre for everyone to cherish, and for our abundant reserves of artist ability and talented organisations to be showcased at, is very much still at the pinnacle of Lib Dem thinking for the Regeneration of Rochdale Town Centre.

"In fact, we are driving this vision forward and it has not gone to sleep and so does not need re-awakening.

"We want Rochdale to succeed; and for an arts centre to form part of the reinvigoration of economic prosperity and vitality for the town centre. This will also be a key plank in  our plan to improve the tourism offer of the Town Centre for the future.

"We are driving and leading on this dream for Rochdale which we want to see transformed into a reality.

"Although it is unlikely that the current funding settlement for the regeneration of the east of the Town Centre could be used to build such a facility and this is why we are examining the Lottery route at present.

"Moreover it disappoints us that if we placed a bid now for such a project, because of the ever growing demands of the London Olympic 2012 bill that is plundering the lottery - it stands at £9.6 billion and sure to rise - us northerners would lose out again to the Government's fixation on saving face on this event under the global spotlight.

"However, by planning now for such a bid, we think we will have a great chance of getting in early when the Olympics have been paid for.

"Our forward thinking and the needs of the Borough are still very much together on this aspiration for Rochdale.

"We intend for the 'vision setting' group to meet again this month, and then for a task group to be formed so that the bid when submitted will have a feasible outline plan which is owned by the Borough.

"This is further demonstrable action!"

However, Councillor Mulgrew's explanation brought an angry response from local musician John Butterworth who said: ""This translates as, 'the promises we made at the election nine months ago were a load of horse-s**t. Thank you for voting for us, your message is in the queue (somewhere after the Olympics) now **** off and let us get on with screwing this town properly'!"

Father Paul Daly called Councillor Mulgrew "a thinking man's John Prescott", adding "when the new arts centre is open, I will premiere a dramatic reading of the above speech so that one can see its wonderful lack of cadence, absence of grammar and over-abundance of pious and nonsensical verbiage".