Do not believe everything you read online or in the letters pages of the local press.
In the past few months Brixham Arts & Theatre Society (BATS) has been illegally locked out of the space they leased, vilified and defamed on social media, both as a company and one of the Directors personally, had our website cloned illicitly and been accused of immorality.
BATS is a fully registered company, who held a notarised lease, legitimately purchasing their own equipment and assets. After being hit with a 50% increase in rent, amongst other factors that made the theatre unviable, we gave notice to Brixham Town Council (BTC), strictly according to the terms of our lease on Brixham Theatre and are continuing as a company, supporting the arts in Brixham, as BATS has always been set up to do.
As soon as the BATS shows ended in March, Brixham Town Council illegally locked us out of our leased space and one of the BTC Councillors defamed and vilified us on social media, so we had to seek legal advice and redress.
BATS has not only invested more than £50,000 in refurbishing Brixham Theatre, we have also subsidised the lack of hiring income to cover the overheads of running the theatre, including paying rent to Brixham Town Council, and offered greatly reduced rates to both youth theatre groups, local amateur companies and local community groups to use the theatre.
Any items that have been donated to the theatre, such as the clavinova, have been left in situ, along with all the items listed on the inventory as belonging to BTC. BATS had also donated additional equipment of its own to ensure the theatre can continue to operate smoothly.
Any donations or grants that were given for improvements that have not been able to happen during the BATS tenure, such as replacing the worn seating, have been returned to the donors, an example of this being the Care for a Chair donations. The £656.25 proceeds of the public collection at the Lanterns, Lights & ‘luminations 2016 event, specifically to improve the theatre seats, have been donated to BTC to continue the project as the worn out theatre seating has now reached the point of being beyond repair.
BATS has not ‘ransacked’ Brixham Theatre, as a BTC Councillor publicly proclaimed. We have offered to make equipment that BATS legitimately owns available to the new group running the theatre, as well as other arts organisations.
For the future, BATS will continue to support exciting new projects that advance the arts and culture in Brixham and the surrounding area. This will mean that, on occasions, BATS will still be staging professional arts events at a variety of venues around Torbay.
To that end, BATS conducted a needs survey of local organisations, as any sensible company should do. We have not stated that we will be dispersing money or equipment willy nilly, as we have been accused of doing in the letter pages of the local press. Projects applying for support will have to fulfil certain criteria and demonstrate not only artistic benefit but fiscal prudence and sound management.
So far, there have been two exciting projects approved, specifically aimed at artistic development for the young people of Brixham.
Operating Brixham Theatre with BTC had been a challenge. BATS regards our tenancy as a success, leaving behind a rejuvenated space and having staged some landmark events in Brixham, such as the visits from Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee, Gardener’s Question Time, Germaine Greer, many wonderful bands and regular appearances by musicians from across the world. Tibetan culture and Chinese drama were only two aspects of the professional theatre performances on offer to Brixham audiences. We have also encouraged and supported the town’s two youth theatre groups and local amateur performers throughout our tenure.
We wish the new company well and look forward to their exciting programming of the venue. Thankfully they won’t have to pay the additional rent costs as BTC has added that as an extra charge on the Brixham residents via the increased precept.