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Glasgow’s Arches taking legal advice over licence restriction, London’s RichMix launches petition over potential closure

By | Published on Wednesday 20 May 2015

Arches

The Arches in Glasgow has said it is taking legal advice over the local council’s decision to cut its licensed hours. The licence change makes it difficult for The Arches to host club nights, which, says management, will be devastating for the not-for-profit charity-run arts venue, as 51% of its income comes from club activity.

The decision follows a period of police monitoring, following a number of drug and alcohol related offences on the premises earlier this year.

The venue’s Executive Director Mark Anderson said in a statement yesterday: “We are still stunned by Friday’s decision and at a loss to understand just what more we could have done to provide a safer clubbing environment at The Arches. Over the period under review, we welcomed over 250,000 clubbers through our doors. Of that number, just 0.14% were reported for misuse of drugs incidents”.

He added: “What is more worrying is that despite the increased safety measures we adopted on the recommendation of Police Scotland, which had already alienated many of our valued club customers, our successful operation of those policies has resulted in the statistics being used against us”.

With 15% of the venue’s annual turnover derived from public subsidy, Arches directors will this week meet with funding partners Creative Scotland and Glasgow Life to discuss potential ways forward if the licensing decision cannot be overturned. Currently, all scheduled Arches events are set to go ahead, though a Sasha-headlined club night on Saturday has been moved to the SWG3 venue.

Meanwhile, in London, another charity-run arts venue, Rich Mix, is facing closure due to a long running dispute with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. In 2011, the council issued legal papers demanding the repayment of a 2002 loan, to the amount of £850,000, in one lump payment. The venue argues that, despite operating at a surplus, paying out this amount in one go will bankrupt the business.

The venue also argues that it is actually owed £1.6 million in promised development money that was never paid after being left out of a later contract. In October last year, a judge ruled that this payment was not enforceable due to the uncertain drafting of the agreement.

With a settlement proposed by Rich Mix, based on the payment of both outstanding amounts at the same time, now off the cards, the venue is facing increased uncertainty about its future. As a result, its operators have launched a petition calling on the council to withdraw its court case over the outstanding loan payment and to find ways to support Rich Mix’s work instead.

“We are financially healthy, with a small operating surplus each year. Our only public funding is from Arts Council England and is around 11% of our annual turnover”, says Rich Mix. “We have had no revenue support from the council taxpayers of LBTH since March 2009. [But] the legal action being taken by Tower Hamlets against Rich Mix has the potential to bankrupt the organisation and cause us to close down and stop providing the services and facilities we offer”.

The purpose of the petition, therefore, is to let the council “know how many people value the role played by Rich Mix in the local community and to appreciate what a pivotal role we play in supporting the arts by giving space to emerging artists and groups”.

Read more and sign here.



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