I feel so very let down by Brent.
How can it be right that a theatre gets stolen by its Trustees moments after the public grant is removed?
The theatre is a public body in receipt of public funds, that owes its very existence to the support of Brent Council for 40 years, and has been repeatedly bailed out of perennial financial crises by the citizens of Brent.
It was Brent residents who gave the money to Brent for the Tricycle in the first place. Brent owns the freehold. Brent was hoodwinked by the theatre’s duplicitous fundraising. Two of the organisations supposedly consulted about the planning application have not received the consultation letter from Brent.
It seems to be a failure of local government on many levels and more generally, of local governance of the Arts.
The theatre’s Board is behaving like the venue is their private fiefdom, without accountability. Yet, Brent residents can’t get their council to represent their feelings. Not the representatives on the Board, not the Planning Committee, nowhere, it seems, is there a structure on whom the residents of Brent can rely. How can that be right?
I feel so very let down by Brent.