EVER since we first heard the public ownership of the Sub Rooms might be at risk, it felt like a community campaign to save it from being sold off would be inevitable.

Now, with the future of the district’s only publicly owned arts venue is a state of uncertainty over redundancies and the fate of Mr Twitchett’s, that day has come.

Nonetheless it is great to see such a passionate and energetic response from both the creative community and general public to the Save Our Subs campaign.

Music, art and literature, more than anywhere else in Gloucestershire, are woven and embedded into Stroud’s local culture.

As well as sitting right at the heart of the town centre, the Sub Rooms also lies symbolically at the core of that identity.

We as a community do everything we can to protect that and keep the Subs owned by the taxpayers of Stroud themselves.

Over the next few months campaigners must work with interested parties and Stroud District Council as closely as possible to make sure of that.

One major issue will of course be the financial side of keeping the Sub Rooms afloat. The figures about sustained losses and increasing running costs are impossible to ignore and need to be addressed.

However these are not the real issues here. The main reason we are where we are today is because of reduced funding to local councils from central government.

We all know that if money were no issue, SDC would want to keep this treasured local facility under its control and in public hands as it has done successfully for decades.

Unfortunately though, in this climate of cuts it is has no choice but to tighten its budgets and look for further savings.

Just like other councils across the country, SDC is now having to start operating like a business.

We must not forget that this review of the Sub Rooms is not a card the council wants to play – rather one it is being forced to play by forces out of its control.

--------------------------

Click here to read the full story.