Beck Theatre: Hundreds attend protest to save venue

Hundreds of people in west London have gathered to protest against the possible closure of a theatre.

Beck Theatre in Hayes is under threat as its owners, Trafalgar Theatres, has failed to reach an agreement with Hillingdon Borough Council over its funding.

Local people, who gathered outside Uxbridge Tube station to protest, said they were concerned that the council wanted to force the closure to make it look financially non-viable.

The council dispute this, saying it has no intention of closing the theatre and would find another provider if an agreement could not be reached with Trafalgar Theatres.

The dispute has been ongoing publicly for the last week, with the council saying it did not want to subsidise a “privately-operated commercial entity”.

The current deal, which runs out in January, sees the theatre pay no rent on the use of the building.

Sunday’s protest drew frustrated comments from one mother.

She told BBC London: “I have a child with autism who a journey to somewhere different, going far away in an unfamiliar environment, would be impossible for her to take part.

“Those children have been nurtured by the Beck team, they’ve been in a familiar place and they’ve been given an opportunity that they wouldn’t have had if that wasn’t there.”

Another protester added: “There are some people there that this is their only day out during the whole week.

“If you took that away from them then they would be lost, they would just be sitting in the house.”

Jonathan Haynes, who has been involved with the theatre for 30 years and is coordinating the Back the Beck campaign, said: “We’re concerned that they’re going to take on another lease with another provider, another operator, that may not be a theatre operator.

“We’re concerned that actually what the council are trying to do is to force the closure and make it look financially non viable.”

But Jonathan Bianco, deputy leader for the council, said that was not its plan.

“We have no intention of closing the theatre,” he said, adding: “Our intention is to keep this theatre open.”

Trafalgar Entertainment said given the removal of financial support and issues around building repair liabilities, it could not continue to run the building.