Wigan arts organisation forced to axe jobs and stall major projects

The Old Courts has revealed that it has lost a massive £1.2m in revenue since it was forced to close two of its Crawford Street venues due to damage caused during restoration work.

An insurance claim is taking far longer than expected and so it is putting its own money up front to get the Grand Vault and Theatre operational again as soon as possible.

But meanwhile it has decided to close its cafe for now, let three staff members go and isn’t replacing those who recently left.

Work on restoring the Royal Court theatre on King Street has been shelved and that it won’t be throwing its hat in the ring to run events at Wigan Pier when it finally re-opens.

The Old Courts had been in partnership with Pier developer Step Places, but as Wigan Today reported last month, the latter had been receiving expressions of interest from major national event companies since the pandemic ended and so it put the work out to tender.

It all makes for a grim short-term scenario for the not-for-profit arts body which has been at the heart of many ventures to breathe new cultural life into a beleaguered town.

The trigger for much of what has gone wrong was the attempted removal of a safe from the Old Courts by a previous contractor which caused structural damage and meant the Grand Vault and Theatre – home to so many live performances – unsafe to use.

Sales and marketing director Rebecca Davenport said: “While our insurers began work on the claims process, we started scenario planning and didn’t recruit any planned new roles or re-recruit roles when people left the organisation. We did this to safeguard as many roles as possible should our insurers not deem the claim to be an insured loss.

“Since then we have worked round the clock to aid the insurance process in every way possible in order to minimise the timescale of the process and disruption caused by the issue. But despite our best efforts, we are now having to take further action which means a significantly longer wait for any claim pay out being made.

“The two venue spaces we have temporarily closed represent a significant part of our ability to generate revenue. As a result, we have experienced a significant reduction of trade in our other licensed spaces on site which usually peak in line with events in The Grand Vault and Theatre. This represents a loss of income valued at £1.2m to August 2023 which has, unsurprisingly, caused unprecedented cashflow issues as we are also awaiting receipt of significant funding payments.

“With these spaces representing such a significant proportion of our income and activity, we need them back in action as soon as possible and so we have deemed it necessary to fund the repairs ourselves in advance of any insurance pay out. This week we have instructed contractors to begin design work to create the package of works for the building repair.

“As a result of this we have undertaken a re-budget for the remainder of this financial year, taking into consideration both the current reduction in income and the uncertainty regarding the timescales of the claim process with our insurers.

“In order to navigate this upcoming period, regretfully we have had to reduce the size of our team. In accordance with this we have now completed a round of redundancies and also taken the decision not to re-recruit any positions made vacant by any team members leaving in this period. We have unfortunately made three colleagues redundant and re-negotiated two other roles to part-time contracts. This has been without doubt the most difficult process undertaken since the organisation was founded in 2014.

“We have also decided to temporarily close our café and offer an alternative role in another team to the colleague affected by that.

“The challenges caused by the structural damage to the building combined with the protracted recovery from Covid has been especially difficult. This has been felt across the cultural sector throughout the UK but we take great encouragement from the fantastic audience numbers we saw just prior to this issue unfolding.”

Ms Davenport said that over the last decade they have worked hard to host a range of events and this was never more apparent to them than in April this year when they were awarded National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) status by Arts Council England which in the long term will enable them to take more ambitious creative directions in the borough’s cultural development.

They have been working on new initiatives and relationships within the music industry to bring significant promoters and events to Wigan every month.

She added: “All of this work continues and is really exciting but we need our building fully open to maximise the plans. Away from the spaces impacted by the structural damage, we are very much open and delivering a pretty packed calendar of activity.”

Work on the Royal Court is put on ice for now while work focuses on getting Crawford Street back up to full power. In the meantime ownership of the building will sit within the Old Courts’ charitable trust “so that this historical asset is protected for Wigan and the future.”

Ms Davenport said: “Throughout what been a devastating period in the life of our organisation, we are truly grateful for the understanding and support from local and national partners, artists, Wigan Council, Arts Council England and various other funders and our many supporters.

“So despite a horrendous year, we are looking forward to moving forward and continuing to do what we love – working with our communities and creatives.

"The Old Courts might look slightly different for the time being but we will do our best to keep supporting and developing.

"We do need your help though – we need kindness, support and if you can, please pop into an event, book a party or simply share a social post to help us.”