THE headline (Evening News, Friday, February 28) should have read "Professional theatres cannot survive without subsidies".

I cannot see how city councillor Paul Denham can be a regular reader of the Evening News.

Did he miss the letter by a former city councillor in which he stated he arranged the total annual funding to the Swan all on his own?

No record seems to exist, because no one knows if it was only three years. It seems strange the £83,000 extra came out of reserves each year.

He doesn't seem to have understood the new system whereby cabinet members have permission to do what this councillor did on his own and agree a lesser sum of £94,000.

Is he unaware that all the other towns mentioned have better funding from central government than Worcester?

And isn't it time the political point-scoring came to an end and all the city councillors worked as a team?

For Coun Denham's benefit, I will state that what I object to was the professional takeover of the theatre built for the amateurs in 1964.

If the petition is anything to go by, there should be enough support to build another theatre of their own.

M SIMPKIN,

Fernhill Heath,

Worcester.