LIKE many people, we were surprisedRedditch Council has "suddenly" discovered it needs to make major financial savings.

It is particularly disappointing to see the cultural and arts budgets are at the forefront of these savings.

We believe cutting these services would be short-sighted and be damaging to the town's reputation.

The council has recently been successful in securing millions of public money from lottery funds to carry out much-needed refurbishment work to the Palace Theatre.

How embarrassing it will be to the council and the town in general if we are left with a sparkling new building but have no arts development personnel or budget to establish and grow the necessary audience to fill it.

We can't imagine the funding bodies will be too happy with such a state of affairs as presumably the council made certain assurances about audience development in bidding for such funding.

Cutting the arts development budget will set the town back years and will damage any future application for the arts, culture, heritage and probably social funding too.

The present arts development officer, whose post is one of those under threat, has worked tirelessly to raise the profile of arts and culture in the town and to overcome the reputation Redditch had of being a "cultural and artistic desert".

He has helped to ensure proposed arts and cultural projects in the town are now taken seriously by major funding bodies such as the Arts Council, which has not always been the case.

The post holder has also helped to secure external funding which has benefited many of our young people.

At a time when the "New Palace" can benefit from all this hard work, it would be stupidity beyond belief to consider cutting this post and associated arts development budget.

For those who would argue that "the arts" are an expensive luxury which should be cut before other services, ask yourself, why is it that in inner-city regeneration projects, the first type of business they try to attract are those in the "creative industries"?

It is simply because they add vibrancy and a "feel good" factor which attracts other bigger industries into the area.

Contrary to popular belief, "the arts", in the long term, generate income for a town.

We already have a town without a cinema, without an art gallery or a museum in the centre of the town and if we allow our arts provision to wither and die, then people will simply go elsewhere and take their money with them.

We should think very carefully about the legacy we leave to the next generation.

If this budget is cut, it will take years to rebuild lost audiences and re-establish credible relationships with organisations such as the Arts Council, if ever.

An ultimate case of "penny wise, pound foolish".

Andy and Jan Higgitt

Jestaminute Theatre Company