Redbridge Music School and Drama Centre will not face cuts when the budget for 2014/15 is decided, a Conservative councillor has said.
Speaking at yesterday’s full council meeting at Redbridge Town Hall, High Road, Ilford, Cllr Kumar responded to several questions from the public gallery about whether Redbridge Music Service, in Fencepiece Road, Hainault, would have funding cuts.
Cllr Ashok Kumar (Con, Cranbrook), cabinet member for culture and leisure, said: “I note the concerns of our residents, clearly going forward the council has to make massive savings of tens of millions of pounds.
“The harsh reality is all our services both statutory and non-statutory will have to share the burden of these savings.”
“However, I am proposing that for 2014/15 neither the Music Service nor the Drama Centre will have to implement the savings currently planned in the budget for next year.”
Redbridge Drama Centre, Churchfields, South Woodford, had faced annual cuts of £89,000 until now after a decision to reduce its funding in March 2012.
Mother-of-four Lynn Hammond, who has three children currently attending the Redbridge Music School, said after the meeting: “I was very surprised but delighted by the Cllr Kumar’s announcement that the 2014/15 budget would not be cut but will wait until I see the figures in back and white before I start celebrating.”
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