THE chief executive of Anvil Arts has disputed the claims of two senior councillors that the arts trust’s ‘strategic planning’ is not up to scratch.

In an open letter earlier this month responding to Anvil Art’s campaign calling on Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to reverse its 50 per cent cut in funding, council leader Cllr Ken Rhatigan and deputy Cllr Simon Bound raised concerns over the management of Anvil Arts.

They pointed out that the organisation has been given £1.1million in public money to sustain themselves during the pandemic but said it hasn’t ‘adequately prepared’ itself for recovery.

The letter went on to urge the board to prioritise the creation of an ‘acceptable’ business plan in order to secure council investment going forwards.

Basingstoke MP Maria Miller added that it was ‘right’ that scrutiny accompany ‘large amounts of public money’, but urged the bodies to work together to protect the ‘jewels’ of the Anvil and Haymarket venues.

Responding now, Matthew Cleaver, of Anvil Arts, said he was ‘surprised’ at the comments, particularly because the council has received quarterly reports and had a councillor sitting on the trust’s board for the past 26 years.

He said: “I’m really surprised that they have such difficulty with this because we’ve always had to produce a business plan, and so we should. We report against that plan to the Arts Council and to Basingstoke council every three months. And they have to approve that report in order to release the next three months investment. And that’s something that’s been in place for the last 26 years.”

He said: “I think there’s an element of the council seeking to justify the cut by trying to find fault with the business plan and the management of the trust, which they haven’t found fault with for 26 years.”

Mr Cleaver added that the trust is “not shying away” from the fact that the business plan submitted earlier this year was a draft, and claims it would be “irresponsible” for it to be otherwise, given the uncertainty of opening back up, the measures which will need to be in place, and the costs of these measures. He added that the “national experts” - the Arts Council - have approved the plan.

“We’re not in control of this situation and we can’t just make up figures in order to fit what people want us to do. It’s got to remain a draft business plan,” he said.

Addressing the £1.1m recovery fund figure, he said that more than 60 per cent of the trust’s income is from its program, and that they have therefore suffered a loss of around £1.5 million to date through closure.

“It’s making up part of that shortfall,” he said, adding: “Even though the programme hasn’t been running and there’s been the test centre at the Anvil, the buildings themselves have still needed all of the usual safety checks, maintenance checks, all of those sorts of things.

“We’ve had a skeleton staff running throughout in terms of things like working on rescheduling all the performances. It’s not as if we’ve been closed and not doing anything. And that’s why the government made the Culture Recovery Fund available.”

As a business which, ordinarily, would have a £5 million turnaround, as well as being a charity, Mr Cleaver urged people to remember the scale on which it operates when reading figures.

“All of the money, whatever we get in terms of income from performances or things we’ve fundraised for, goes towards providing the services to the people of Basingstoke and Deane,” he said.

He added: “In general, the open letter contains a number of inaccuracies and it presents a version of events that we don’t recognise.”