The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Nicholas Hytner, the director of the National Theatre, has launched a scathing attack on Arts Council England for its handling of this year’s grant allocation, which saw almost 200 institutions have their funding withdrawn, including local arts organisations in the Lancaster area.

The plans were announced just before Christmas, with organisations given precious little time to respond because of Christmas holidays. Final funding decisions wil be announced by the Arts Council on 1 February but there are already calls for the organisation itself to be dismantled and funding to return to government control.

The Stage reported last November that Lancaster’s Dukes theatre has been forced to axe 80 per cent of its large-scale producing work following a 50 per cent funding cut by Arts Council England.

Under a new business plan developed in-line with the dramatic subsidy decrease – which will see ACE investment fall from £507,000 to £260,000 in April 2008 – main-house productions will be cut from five to one, and the space will be re-established as a touring venue.

The Dukes’ board, Lancaster City Council and Lancashire County Council all accepted the call for a new business model, and ACE North West executive director Michael Eakin said he believed the theatre’s new plan will offer a better return on public investment.

Mr Hytner has described the funding cuts, in which the council is considering appeals from 194 regularly funded bodies, as a “terrible mess” that was “ill-thought through and very unfair to those organisations that have been told to prepare for cuts”.

Arts Council England’s Peter Hewitt has defended the proposed cuts, telling The Stage this week that all of the organisation’s proposals have been made following the full involvement of specialist staff throughout the organisation, “reflecting both national and regional perspectives.”

“The arts council has received a large number of communications welcoming both the strategy and our specific proposals,” he claimed. “We believe that support will be heard when we publish our final funding decisions on 1 February.”