Joint Committee on the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill Written Evidence


Memorandum from Councillor Bernard Atha, OBE, Leeds City Council (DDB 107)

  I would be grateful if I could present this very brief case study to the Scrutiny Committee on the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill, which highlights a specific problem relating to Disability Access which impinges on matters dealt with by the Bill.

LEEDS CITY VARIETIES

  Leeds City Varieties is a small theatre which began its life a century and a half ago as the assembly rooms of the pub on the ground floor. In due course, the assembly rooms became the Palace of Varieties—an almost unique relic of the Victorian Music Hall preserved exactly as it was 100 years ago. Many of the fabled Music Hall acts appeared there. These include such well knowns as Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Little Titch, Marie Lloyd and other names well known to the Music Hall historian. In more recent times, it became internationally known as the home of the Good Old Days, a programme that ran for 25 years and achieved outstanding success, in terms of viewing figures.

  When the theatre was faced with closure and demolition for redevelopment, the City Council stepped in and bought it knowing full well that it would be impossible to organise the theatre in such a way that it would make a profit or even break-even. They saw the theatre as a unique asset to the City for its historical importance. As the theatre is situated above the pub, access to the auditorium is up a double staircase to the stalls, a vertiginous flight of stairs to the dress circle and an almost equally vertiginous staircase to the gods.

  There is no practical way in which even reasonable access could be provided for those with ambulatory disabilities to make the theatre accessible, without substantial alterations to the listed building and involving very considerable expense.

  An application is to be made to the Heritage Lottery Fund for assistance in making the theatre accessible and preliminary estimates of costs indicate that unless a grant is made it will be impossible to carry out these alterations. If that is the case, the theatre can only go on in breach of the disability requirement. If it were found that the theatre owners, namely Leeds City Council, were acting unreasonably then the theatre would have to close and a unique institution lost.

  The Council has been generous over the years in not merely investing in the structure of the theatre but in maintaining its operation at a cost of about a quarter of a million pounds a year. It is seen as an important part of the cultural life at Leeds and one of those unusual places, which attract tourists to the City. The City, however, would not be prepared to invest possibly two to three million pounds in making the theatre accessible when there are so many constraints on revenue and capital from Government and when there are so many other pressing needs. The Council has an excellent record in making its premises and its streets accessible for people with mobility problems. It is committed to the principles of the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill but may well find it impossible to meet the financial consequences of the DDA in the case of the City Varieties.

March 2004




 
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