TOWN Hall bosses will be deciding tonight whether to give a cash lifeline to the troubled Rich Mix arts centre to help keep it afloat. The troubled Bethnal Green s crisis-hit arts project has been forced to go cap in hand once again to Tower Hamlets cou
TOWN Hall bosses will be deciding tonight whether to give a cash lifeline to the troubled Rich Mix arts centre to help keep it afloat.
The troubled Bethnal Green's crisis-hit arts project has been forced to go cap in hand once again to Tower Hamlets council to ask for a bail-out to save it from going under.
The centre in Bethnal Green Road is asking for �500,000 to pay-off its looming deficit but council officers are also suggesting the Town Hall could hand over additional instalments over the next year that would amount to more than �2m.
The council's Strategic Development Committee will be discussing a possible bail-out tonight.
But around 13 councillors, including Cabinet members Marc Francis and Abdal Ullah and Lib Dem councillor Stephanie Eaton have written a joint letter to the committee to object to the bail-out.
According to a report which will be presented to the committee, the centre has already received �3.9m of funding from the council since it opened in 2006, including a loan of �850,000 which has not yet been repaid.
And in 2007, the centre was also forced to call on the Arts Council for some extra financial help despite receiving �700,000 from it every year.
Officers have given the committee four options to debate which would involve giving the centre some of the section 106 money from the 25-storey block of flats being built opposite on the corner of Bethnal Green Road and Sclater Street.
The plans will be discussed at Mulberry Place from 7pm.
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