On Monday, Salford City Council put the final nail into the coffin of grass roots community arts in the city, when it cut the grant for Ordsall Community Arts, which it's been funding for twenty years.
Ordsall Community Arts, or OCA, will have been based in Ordsall for forty years in 2019 and has run huge community events like Lighting The Legend and the Ordsall Festival, as well as small scale arts projects involving local children and older residents.
A Salford Council report states that "OCA has consistently met all of their obligations as a contract provider, achieving expected outcomes and activities and demonstrating commitment to the core values of the City Plan 2014 2016".
However it adds that "There is other community arts participation work being delivered in the City by partners such as Salford Community Leisure, The Lowry, The University of Salford, Quays Culture programme, BBC Philharmonic, Start Art etc..."
What the report doesn't state is that none of these are accessible, neighbourhood based projects. Indeed, Quays Culture couldn't be further from this model, being a front for MediaCityUK and Peel Holdings entertainment for tourists.
The Council intends to slash fifty per cent from OCA's £21,600 budget this year and next, before a full cut in 2018. It is hoped that by the end of August the University of Salford will make up the £10,800 shortfall otherwise the Council will slash the whole of OCA's budget by September this year.
The Council argues that the cut is "due to current austerity measures" but, while it's looking to save £21,600 by sacrificing OCA, it managed to spend almost £27,000 on an arty garden shed last month for the Tatton Park Flower Show (see here), found £19million for the RHS Garden in Worsley (see here), £300,000 for the doomed Biospheric Project (see here) and £4,000 a week tidying up its fountain on Greengate Square (see here).
Meanwhile the Salford Star print issue 11 documented just five developments in Ordsall that lost the area almost £4million in avoided and evaded planning fees (see print issue 11 electronic version click here).
In that article, OCA worker Gail Skelly, explained "Economic regeneration isn't community regeneration, it's a completely different thing..."
The slashing of funding for Ordsall Community Arts speaks volumes...
* See also previous Salford Star article: Image Obsessed Council While Community Chokes - click here
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