Wyeside Arts Centre
It is extraordinary to me that such a popular and successful cultural centre as the Wyeside Art centre in Builth Wells is in danger of disappearing from our cultural and everyday life for want of a small injection of cash. Just to put it into perspective, the Wyeside Art Centre is the Millennium Centre for the people of Mid Wales.
It’s actually the oldest cinema in Wales and has taken the lead in promoting arts and culture for the people of Mid Wales for a considerable time. Not only does it support a very high quality film programme but also theatre, with very successful partnerships with Mid Powys Youth Theatre and very positive relationships with schools, youth clubs, young farmers clubs and families throughout the area. It plays an important part in providing the young people in the area with a centre of activity and there are precious few in this part of my area. It is an attraction not just to the young but families and people of all ages. It contributes massively to the arts in the region and also means that there is something representative of the Arts and Culture on the doorstep for the people of Mid Wales. Were it not the iconic centre that it is, people would have to travel much further and probably to Hereford or Aberystwyth for similar cultural events. This is totally unacceptable.
I was certainly supportive of the extra money going to the Wales Millennium Centre and remain very supportive of it as an institution but I remember the undertaking by the Minister that spending outside Cardiff would not be prejudiced by this injection of cash – some thirteen million. That undertaking needs to be honoured by the Minister. We are talking a relatively small sum of money, perhaps £50,000 per annum, to help this institution to continue to play the vital part it has done over many years in Mid Wales. Tomorrow I am to meet the excellent artistic and executive director Guy Roderick and David Lloyd the Chairman of the Wyeside, together with Peter Cox the Chairman of CARAD, who are all fighting for the survival of the Wyeside.
