hhmm.. It may be the ACE (and HLF) money is being directed to the south due to Olympics. Lets hope it is only temporary, but I suspect it is more of the typical conservative prejudice against the north.

My local authority (in the southeast) has many arts and heritage projects planned in the run up to summer 2012. Funding is being applied for and won all the time. The question is will the staff be in place to implement the plans? The money is for the projects themselves, not for staff. So what happens to projects when authorities reduce the staff? And they will.

My guess is Big Society companies will take over. They will pay their staff less and charge the local authority more. And so it goes around.

Sorry for the thread drift. I am very happy for the EFDSS allotment, but I worry about the cuts to arts and heritage all over the UK.