THE future of a much-loved drama centre looks brighter after Redbridge Council scaled back cuts to its budget in an effort to secure Arts Council funding.

Under savings plans, Redbridge Drama Centre in Churchfields South Woodford, which is the country’s only local authority funded drama centre, saw its budget slashed by £25,000 in 2011/12 and £89,000 in 2012/13.

Further cuts were due to be implemented by 2014/15 with the centre moving to zero local authority funding after that.

In a report considered by cabinet in September, Keith Homer, the head of the drama centre, said that the Arts Council had stressed to him that they would not normally continue to fund a national portfolio organisation for which they were the sole public funder.

That raised fears that the Arts Council, which has committed to £180,000 worth of funding up to 2014/15, would pull the plug if Redbridge implemented zero funding.

And it seems that prospect has prompted Redbridge Council to rethink its timetable of cuts.

At a meeting in the drama centre last week, Alan Weinberg, the council’s cabinet member for children’s services, told an advisory group that proposals to cut the council’s subsidy to the Drama Centre from a figure of £188,000 to £89, 000 in 2013/14 and move to zero funding  in 2014/15 had been scrapped.

Instead, the council will now provide £164,000 in 2013/14 and £75,000 in 2014/15.

He said: “I have listened to what has been said, and in particular I have listened to the young people who use the centre.

“They have told me in no uncertain terms how much they value the centre and that is why we have taken this decision.”

While the council still wants the centre to be self-sustaining the fact that zero funding will not now come in at the end of 2014-15 could help secure further Arts Council funding.

Pankaj Pathak of the Friends of Redbridge Drama Centre, said: “I think the news that the Arts Council would pull the plug if Redbridge moved towards zero funding changed the mood music considerably.

“This is a significant reversal of plan. We still have to deal with cuts, but I think these new figures are achievable.

“This announcement means survival and we are grateful to all those councillors involved for adopting these changes.”