The Marina which has held a prestigious residency with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the past six years has struggled recently following a series of cuts to its funding yet despite this the venue continues to offer a diverse cultural mix.

At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday night Waveney District Council’s executive ratified the decision to agree to the proposal made at an earlier cross party scrutiny panel.

Over the coming months the authority and the theatre management and Friends committee will now work to form a charitable not for profit organisation to guide the theatre for the next fifteen years.

Waveney District Council will continue to own the premises and have a commitment to maintain the building structure and the new management will seek to source funding to enhance internal areas.

The authority will offer a subsidy of 150K for the first four years of the operation with future funding levels to be negotiated. This will leave the new trust with a substantial funding gap which will need to be filled however the successful  management bid outlined several key areas in which this could be achieved.

Ten years ago the theatre received double its current subsidy and despite it being cut substantially had gone on to treble its audiences and attract high calibre events including major artistes, musicals, drama. opera, ballet and comedy as well as a highly successful professional pantomime and hugely popular cinema.

As part of the bid the management have promised to maintain the venues current programme and provide a broad cultural mix as well as providing a home for local amateur and community events and its popular film series.

Late last year the authority attempted to find a new operator for the venue and when this proved unsuccessful suggested the Marina could be offered without the requirement for it to be a theatre – prompting a storm of protests and a campaign which had widespread support from major stars including comedian Ken Dodd. This led to a change in the specification set and for the first time the chance for the theatres own successful management to put forward a bid.

Following a lengthy process a management bid was put forward with the full support of the theatre friends organisation and it is this bid which will now form the basis of the new trust.

It is hoped the new management arrangement will be in place by the end of the year.

Theatre Manager Martin Halliday who led the bid to take on the Marina said “I am delighted that a solution has been achieved, over the past nine years we have turned the Marina around, introducing a vast array of quality events and in turn seen audiences more than treble, enabling the venue to establish a strong reputation within the theatre industry. We are now looking forward to working with our partners Waveney District Council and The Friends Of The Marina, as we build on past achievements and create the new charitable company to operate the theatre. Since news of our bid was made public, we have received numerous offers of support for the future, and we will of course be following these up, but in the short term I would ask the public to assist us in the best way possible buy tickets! We have a host of events over the coming months and while we prepare to move forward and confirm the future programme it is important that we get off to a strong start.”

Chairman of the Friends Of The Marina, “Peter Wilson added The past few years have been a worrying time for both the staff at the theatre and many thousands of theatre goers. The Friends of the Marina welcomes the news that the bid to run the venue has been accepted and looks forward to supporting the management team as we enter an exciting new era both for the Marina and the cultural life of the area.”

Ian Maclay, Managing Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra added, “The RPO has every confidence that the management of the Marina will run the venue with continued success in the future. The orchestra is fully committed to the concert series at the Marina, and looks forward to appearing in Lowestoft for many years to come.”