THE chief executive of Anvil Arts has thanked the Basingstoke public for supporting the #ReverseTheCut petition - which now has nearly 6,000 signatures.

The petition, set up by arts organisation Campaign for the Arts, calls on Basingstoke Council to retract its recently-announced £400,000 funding cut to the trust.

It gained more than 5,000 signatures in the first week, and is the platform’s fastest growing appeal to date.

Anvil Arts’ CEO, Matthew Cleaver, said: “We’re really pleased that they’ve got behind the issue, and also obviously absolutely amazed by the number of people who have already signed the petition.

“The people’s voices should be listened to by the council I think, it’s significant numbers. It adds weight to the idea that the council should reverse the cut.”

He continued: “We know from the number of people that we get through the doors every year that there’s an enormous appetite for what the Anvil and the Haymarket do, so in that sense it’s not a surprise. But obviously there’s a difference between buying a ticket and actually signing a petition, and I think the the thing that we are really pleased about is people actually making their opinions known.”

Mr Cleaver urged people to continue showing their support by signing and sharing the petition, as well as writing to their local representatives.

“Continue to sign, please. It’s about keeping those numbers growing and seeing where we can get to,” he said.