Twyford Hall committee president and theatre advocate Bill Deveril said he was “elated” after council agreed to support the Twyford Hall committee in its push for funding for a raked theatre.
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The project has been in the making since 2002, something that councillor Tony Allen acknowledged when he spoke at the council meeting on Wednesday, August 16.
“I remember Bill coming to council because he was frustrated about getting traction on this issue. The bigger picture is this project has been going since 2002 and they deserve our support and admiration for being tough enough to keep going for that length of time,” Cr Allen said.
But it wasn’t plain sailing with councillors referring to the staff report and talk of “risk”.
The motion on the table was a straightforward one of support but things started to get complex as councillors tried to add to, or amend the motion, to include a clause that would remove council risk relating to the funding and also introduce support for Twyford Hall to have deductible gift recipient (DGR) status.
At one stage council appeared to be tying itself in knots and losing its way but after advice that whoever gets the grant is responsibility for its acquittal and that DGR status is best pursued separately, the motion of support was passed unanimously, with councillor Liz Seckold absent as her son-in-law had been involved in discussions with Twyford Hall.
Mr Deveril said they would now be pushing on with the application for funding from the Regional Cultural Fund which has been set up to invest $100 million over four years to drive growth in arts, screen, cultural and heritage infrastructure in regional NSW.
The project is ready to go with an approved DA and strong backing from member for Bega Andrew Constance.
“We have a situation where we’re ready to go and it’s not going to cost the ratepayers any money. The whole committee is thrilled,” Mr Deveril said.
He added that they were likely to be asking for expressions of interest from builders in order to be as far advanced as possible.
Expressions of interest must be submitted by September 4 and the successful projects will be notified by October 23. Final business cases are due January 15, 2018 with announcements expected in February 2018.
