THE fight to save the Swan Theatre may have be lost, but the city council must act fast to plug the artistic gap, a Worcestershire MP has warned.

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff said there was now little hope of saving the Swan, regardless of what the city council decides in its budget.

Because of the uncertainty of the theatre's future, staff have been made redundant and it has been impossible to book productions for the spring season.

"My concern is that Worcester, the county town of Worcestershire, must have vibrant artistic and cultural activities," said Mr Luff, whose wife is a director at the Swan Theatre.

"The great hope obviously lies in the University College Worcester development at the old hospital site on Castle Street.

"Hopefully, it could provide a greatly enhanced facility for arts and drama in the city and the county, although that is some years away.

"There will be a gap in the city's artistic life which I greatly regret.

"The Swan wasn't just a theatre," he said.

Mr Luff said the closure of The Swan had made him question the city council's attitude towards arts in Worcester.

"I am starting to worry about the council's lack of commitment to the city's cultural life," he said.

Mr Luff said the McKinnon report, commission by the theatre, had not been properly discussed by the city council.

He said the report gave the theatre a clean bill of health and highlighted many exciting possibilities for the future.

"The only thing the report did criticise was the future of the building itself. It said in five or 10 years it would probably be inadequate," said the MP.

"But the debate was only about the financial circumstances and the possibility of closure."

Mr Luff also referred to the failed Lottery bid which began in 1998 and was submitted in January 2001.

"Jenny Stephens at the Swan looked over the bid and said it would fail. But her changes were ignored and the original bid was submitted which then failed."