City of Culture cuts
Perth bids for UK accolade while slashing funds for music lessons
A LOCAL authority has been mocked for launching a bid to be City of Culture – while slashing the funding for children’s music services.
Cash-strapped Perth and Kinross Council formally launched its campaign to be named the UK’s City of Culture for 2021 on Thursday.
But furious campaigners have blasted the council for making the bid – backed by Hollywood star Alan Cumming – while slashing around £60,000 from school music budgets.
The local authority – which recently spent £10 million refurbishing its council chambers – has been accused of “rank hypocrisy”.
An online petition to save school music provision has already attracted more than 1500 signatures on the Change.org website.
Parent Alan Dickson, 42, said: “I’m all in favour of Perth going for the City of Culture title – but not when they are axing vital services left, right and centre.
“How can they apply for a culture title with a straight face when they have outraged people by taking away the opportunity for kids to learn music? The sum they want to save is a pittance in real terms. I expect it’s way less than they’ll pay to consultants for the City of Culture bid.
“Research shows that kids who learn to play musical instruments get a positive knock-on effect in their educational attainment. It’s rank hypocrisy to cut this funding while trying to win an award for being cultured.”
Representatives of Perth and Kinross Music Foundation, Perth Youth Orchestra committee and the Young Musicians Parents Association (Perth and Kinross) started the online petition.
A spokesman for the group said: “Perth and Kinross Council are proposing to stop paying tutors to run music camps and group ensembles (youth bands, orchestras and choirs).
“If the council does this, the group ensembles will stop and music camps will no longer take place, thus depriving children of the most fun aspects of learning a musical instrument. Music tutors already do a lot of unpaid work. They do not have any ‘extra’ time to fit in music camps and group ensembles.”
Perth is the bookies’ favourite to win the UK City of Culture ahead of rival bids from Paisley, Cardiff and Coventry.
Perth and Kinross Council leader Ian Miller said: “We all consider that we have a really strong bid.”