Fears for future of Littlehampton’s Windmill centre

John Stride, chief executive of Inspire Leisure, said the trust faced major difficulties in keeping the Windmill open if Arun went ahead with proposals to reduce by £300,000 its annual payment to Inspire for running the district’s leisure facilities.

The situation has been made worse by the need to invest about £50,000 on digital projection equipment for the Windmill’s cinema operation.

Mr Stride said Inspire needed reassurances from Arun about the Windmill’s future within the next four to six weeks, as the digital equipment had to be ordered in that time in order to be ready by September, from when all major film releases will be in digital format only.

Arun has launched a consultation on its spending plans for the next five years, with the aim of making savings of £2m from 2013. Among the proposed savings are a £300,000 “negotiated decrease” in the management fee paid to Inspire.

That sum is in line with a figure produced at the end of last year by consultants appointed to draw up a leisure strategy for Arun. They claimed that Arun was paying much more to subsidise its leisure facilities than other councils.

However, Mr Stride said the comparison was unfair, as it was with councils who had only leisure centres, and not an expensive-to-run theatre/cinema such as the Windmill.

“It costs a lot to run the Windmill – the subsidy is about £4 per visit,” said Mr Stride.

The uncertainty over the Windmill could also affect the theatre groups using the venue, he added. “We normally take bookings a year or so in advance, so we are already looking at dates next year, by when the Windmill could be closed, if the £300,000 is taken away. The cost of running the Windmill would have to be thoroughly investigated.”

Mr Stride said a £300,000 cut in the management fee went “much beyond” the gradual reduction in the management fee agreed by Inspire and the council when the trust took over Arun’s leisure facilities several years ago.

Nigel Lynn, Arun’s chief executive, said: “We have been advised by independent consultants that we are not getting good value for money. We have been told that we can get better services at less cost to the ratepayer. It’s our duty to the taxpayers of Arun to get the best possible service we can at the best possible price which is why we are in ongoing discussions with Inspire Leisure.”

A leading member of a Littlehampton-based theatre group which regularly books the Windmill to stage its productions said any proposal which threatened the Windmill’s future was “just crazy”.

She added: “They should think about the damage to the community. There are so many children involved in the groups using the Windmill and it gives so much for many elderly people, too.”