Kenilworth Town Council has granted up to £100,000 to a local theatre this week after 13 councillors voted in favour of an application, with only one abstaining from the vote.

The Talisman Theatre has successfully applied for a grant from KTC via its Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) grant scheme.

The funds will be used by the theatre to help with the major redevelopment works currently in motion, which will see a two-storey extension, a new studio and lift built for the Barrow Road venue.

The theatre has previously stated that an estimated total of £1.2million will be needed for the overall project; the funds from KTC are to be used for the next phase of this work.

KTC will, however, only release the grant to the Talisman once the theatre has secured the rest of the funds for this part of the project, following an amendment added by Cllr James Kennedy (Grn, Dalehouse).

The CIL scheme is offered by a number of councils across the UK and is designed to enable local authorities to invest large amounts of capital to help improve infrastructure in the local area. The grants can be used directly or given to local organisations.

Speaking at last week's full council meeting, Cllr Kennedy said: "I propose that we should grant this approval for what will be a great facility that will benefit the whole of the community, and for their ideas of reaching out to young people and involving them in the theatre."

Cllr Michael Coker added: "The town is very fortunate in having two theatres, I do not say amateur theatres on purpose because actually whilst they are not specifically professional, they are of such high quality that we are very fortunate to have them.

"The Talisman in particular has been self sufficient for a number of years, providing a super service to the town and actually improving it, and what they are planning to do is absolutely necessary if they are to continue to do this."

At the same meeting a grant of £30,000 to Brambles Pre-School was rejected after the motion to approve the grant received six votes both for and against, with two abstentions.

Mayor of Kenilworth Cllr Richard Dickson (Lib Dem, St John's) held the casting vote, and remained with his previous vote and rejected the application.

Speaking at the meeting Cllr Michael Coker (Cons, Abbey) said "I was rather concerned actually, as to the number of children that would benefit from this proposal...as I see CIL, and others may disagree, I think that CIL should be for the general good, and a long term feature that should benefit the whole of the community as much as possible, or at least to be available to the whole of the community.

"I therefore felt that really whilst I wanted to support this application, I really do not feel that it falls within my view of CIL in so far as it is a rather restricted number, is likely to remain a restricted number and is in a restricted area."

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