TRUSTEES of The Worthys Jubilee Hall have spoken out following their controversial decision to raise rent costs and reduce the hours of a long-established arts school, forcing the family-run business to look elsewhere after more than four decades at the facility.

Winchester Theatre Arts has been teaching children dance and musical theatre in Kings Worthy for the past 45 years.

Based at the hall, the business started with just 15 students on a Saturday morning.

It’s now home to 10 times that number, taking in pupils as young as three-years-old and tutoring them all the way through until 19.

During that time, it has helped ‘hundreds if not thousands’ of children pursue their passion, some of whom have gone on to perform in the West End.

However, principal of the school, Claire Goodwin, recently revealed it has had its hours cut by trustees of the facility at a time when she was looking to expand.

Registered with the Charities Commission, the trustees told her they feel the hall should instead be made available for further ‘community use’.

This, coupled with the trustees' decision to increase rent costs for the second time this year, has forced her to scale back the current operation and consider moving the much-loved organisation to pastures new.

While Ms Goodwin admitted she will be sad to leave the hall behind, she insisted it could be an "exciting" time for all those involved with Winchester Theatre Arts.

However, friends and former pupils of the school have criticised the decision. They say the trustees will struggle to replace the much-loved business once it has gone.

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In a joint statement, the trustees said: "The Worthys Jubilee Hall has been a well-used and well-loved community asset for over 80 years. The Trustees’ aim is to increase the use of the hall by a wider variety of community and commercial organisations and individuals, and to mitigate the risk to the hall’s income through reliance on very few organisations.

"To work towards this objective, the trustees determined a cap to all regular bookers at ‘premium time’ to only allow regular users to block-book after 7pm on two weekday evenings and up to 1pm at weekends, leaving space for new voluntary or commercial organisations to grow and flourish, and for local residents to book events such as children’s parties.

"Prior to the new policy, Winchester Theatre Arts used The Jubilee Hall during term time for over 27 hours per week. The new policy would have resulted in them either reducing their bookings by 4 ¾ hours, or moving these hours outside of the hall’s ‘premium time’ slots.

"Instead, Winchester Theatre Arts decided to significantly reduce their bookings to 10 ¾ hours per week. All village halls, as well as residents, are experiencing large increases in utility bills, and as a result a small increase has been applied to our hiring fees for commercial users of the hall.

"This is now in line with other local halls, and ensures that required maintenance tasks can be carried out to keep the hall in use. As a charity The Worthys Jubilee Hall is unable to subsidise commercial organisations.

"The Worthys Jubilee Hall has kept reduced hiring fees in place for community, charity, and voluntary use. Trustees are looking forward to the theatrical productions in December to be held at the hall, including the annual Worthy Players pantomime on Friday 2, Saturday 3, Friday 9 and Saturday 10 December, and Winchester Theatre Arts’ Musical Christmas from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 December."

Having just finished their annual show – which saw more than 130 children perform over three days – Ms Goodwin has said no move is imminent, and the school will continue to use both the hall and its studio for the time being.  

For more information on the school, including the hiring policy, visit: jubileehall.org.uk