ONLY local authority grants and local fundraising enables Ludlow Assembly Rooms to keep going at a time when public spending is under a crippling squeeze.

Ludlow’s main arts facility is hoping to retain its funding from the Town Council amid fears that it may be cut and it has set becoming more sustainable.

The Ludlow Assembly Rooms is the largest beneficiary from Ludlow Town Council’s grants scheme and has been receiving £15,000 a year.

In a report, it says that it would not have survived without the money from the town council.

It says that this is vitally important but the town council has announced that it will be forced to slash its grant funding from 40,600 to £28,700.

The cut, if finally approved, will represent more than 25 per cent and if this were reflected on a pro-rata basis would lop nearly £4,000 off the money made available to the Assembly Rooms.

Accounts produced by the Assembly Rooms show that, in the year ending in March, it made a profit of just £28,681 on a turnover of £558,000.

The Assembly Rooms is heavily dependent upon grants and donations with £73,800 from Shropshire Council the biggest contributor. Local fundraising contributes a further £27,930.

Accounts produced by the Assembly Rooms show how vulnerable it is with more than £210,000 coming from local authority grants, donations and other charitable fundraising.

Of the outgoings, more than £190,000 was paid in salaries paid to nine people with no-one earning £60,000 a year or more.

As part of the arrangement with Ludlow Town Council, the facility provides meeting rooms and provides public toilet facilities.

In a report to the town council, the Ludlow Assembly Rooms says that special efforts have been put into growing the audience of children and young people with sell-out shows for The Pied Piper, The Elves, The Shoemaker and The Wind in the Willows.

A successful funding bid to the British Film Institute enabled the Assembly Rooms to develop ‘The Little Monsters Film Club’ aimed at young people that involved three of five sessions taking place at The Rockspring Centre.

There was an artistic programme of live shows and workshops with 52 events of which 15 were for children and for which more than 5,560 tickets were sold.

Technology enabled the live screening of events from the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and English National Opera amongst others. Nearly 4,100 tickets were sold for these events.

But the major source of income continues to be films with almost 28,000 tickets sold during the year generating a revenue of nearly £142,000, an increase of more than £20,000 on the previous year. One of the most successful was a showing of Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie where 32 per cent of the audience were new to the venue.

The Ludlow Visitor Information Centre has also been operating from Ludlow Assembly Rooms since September 2014. It is now an entirely volunteer operation since Shropshire Council withdrew funding and can no longer book accommodation. An estimated 500 people a month visit the centre.

Plans for the future include taking over the facility under an asset transfer agreement with Shropshire Council and opening a café.