A MAJOR step in securing the long term future of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society (RLPS) was taken this week with the news that the organisation has been accepted onto the Arts Council of England's Stabilisation Recovery programme.

The society is currently running at a deficit of £1.8 million, but management are at pains to point out that this does not mean the debt will be wiped out overnight. Instead, the Arts Council will spend the next six months working closely with the RLPS in devising a detailed programme to achieve financial stability over the next five years and beyond. Only then will the exact details of the strategy, and the figures involved, be known.

Chief Executive Antony Lewis Crosby explained : "This is wonderful news for us, and coming up so soon after last week's announcement about The Playhouse and Everyman, it is wonderful news for Liverpool, a city with one of the richest artistic traditions in the world."

One crucial factor affecting the ultimate Arts Council grant will be Local Authority funding, an area where historically the arts on Merseyside have not received the same degree of support as elsewhere in the UK.

Antony Lewis-Crosby said : "We need to secure a stronger, deeper financed relationship with our local authorities, and there are already highly encouraging and welcome signs of an increased commitment for the years ahead.

"The commitment shown to ourselves and to the playhouse and Everyman theatres displays just how deeply the Arts Council and people of Merseyside care about preserving their artistic heritage and that we can all look forward to a flourishing future in the new millennium."

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