Theatr Brycheiniog bailout lack of scrutiny 'regret'

The council-owned theatre was purpose built and opened on the canalside in 1997

A council-owned theatre faced closure in 2018 without an urgent payment of nearly £158,000 to keep it afloat, senior Powys councillors have said.

Internal auditors claimed the authority "should have been more prepared" to help Theatr Brycheniog in Brecon and not need to bypass normal scrutiny.

One councillor said he was told he would be responsible for the venue's closure if he called in the decision.

A senior officer said corporate governance in Powys had since improved.

The theatre had warned of its financial pressures in October 2017, but the cabinet had been reluctant to provide any extra money, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Gwilym Williams, chair of the health and care scrutiny committee, said a senior officer told him in August 2018 that without new cash "there was a strong possibility that the theatre would close, the building would become empty and would probably cost more money in the long run".

Peter Roberts, chair of learning and skills scrutiny, added: "It was placed very clearly that if I called it in [for scrutiny], the theatre would fold and I would be responsible.

"In hindsight it could have been scrutinised. Not bringing the decision to an urgent scrutiny meeting is the only one I regret."

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The auditors' report said there was no evidence of wrongdoing but criticised "a lack of documentary evidence" to support the decision-making process.

"The decision for funding options had been considered for some time", said Ian Halsted, assistant director of the South West Audit Partnership.

"The council should have been more prepared so that the matter should not have been dealt with such urgency and bypassed some of the scrutiny."

Vanessa Young, the council's director of transformation and resources, said: "These events occurred in 2018 and there's been a lot of progress and improvement in our corporate governance arrangements since that time."