The Lancaster MP has written to the Chancellor to ask the Government to help prevent the closure of The Platform and Visitor Information Centres.
Last month, Lancaster City Council said they were to consult on the possible closure of Visitor Information Centres in Lancaster and Morecambe, including The Platform arts and entertainment venue.
In view of this, Cat Smith has written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, calling on him to ask that the Government provide the additional funding to keep The Platform and Visitor Centres open in line with what Ms Smith describes as ‘Levelling Up’ promises.
She wrote: ‘’Like many local authorities, Lancaster is having to look at spending reductions to ensure a balanced budget. Many constituents have written to me concerned that the City Council is having to close Visitor Information Centres in Lancaster and Morecambe, as well as to close the highly popular entertainment venue The Platform in Morecambe to save money.
‘’The Platform is a stepping-stone venue forming highly important part of Lancaster and Morecambe's cultural ecosystem by giving a space for artists to perform and develop. It is an integral part of Morecambe and Lancaster's offer and attracts tourists for their events throughout the year.
‘’The proposed closure of the Visitor Information Centres and mothballing of The Platform is expected to save the City Council £400,000 per year. This comes in the context of Lancaster seeing 60% of its budget cut since 2010. Given your Government's stated commitment to 'Levelling Up’, I call upon the Treasury to provide Lancaster City Council £400,000 in funding to keep them open.’’
A council meeting last month heard that the VICs located at The Platform on Marine Road and the Storey in Lancaster are likely to shut at the end of the 2023 season.
Owners Lancaster City Council would then move towards promoting the district online via a "digital model".
Councillor Anne Whitehead, the city council's cabinet member for finance, told fellow councillors that The Platform's current use as an arts and concert venue was also no longer viable due to "escalating costs and resource constraints".
Councillor Whitehead said that "alternative uses" would be sought for the former railway station, which opened in its current form in 1997.
She said: "Whilst The Platform has hosted many popular and successful cultural events over its years of direct operation by the council, escalating costs and resource constraints mean the current operating model is no longer viable.
"Alternative uses will be sought for the building whilst the council continues to support Morecambe's rich cultural offer in every possible way, particularly as it accelerates over the coming years as the Eden Project Morecambe takes shape.
"During 2023-24 we will transform our visitor information, tourism and marketing provision from a physical presence in the form of Visitor Information Centres, which can no longer be funded from the end of the 2023 visitor season, to a more digital model, taking a highly focussed, online approach to promoting our district."
Closing the Visitor Information Centres and finding another use for The Platform was recommended by the Lancaster City Council cabinet, made up of a cross-party group of Green, Labour, Morecambe Bay Independent and Bay Independent Group councillors, as part of their 2023/24 budget proposals.
The full council will take a vote on the budget at a meeting on February 22.
Related Story: Visitor Information Centres and The Platform under threat due to council budget cuts - Beyond Radio
The council has said that unless drastic action is taken, it will be left with an estimated £4.2million black hole in its finances for 2023/24.
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