Arun District Council will borrow £3 million to complete the theater works

Arun District Council is to borrow a further £3m to cover the costs of regenerating the Alexandra Theatre.

The initial budget for the project was £15,780,000, funded mostly by a £12.1m grant (LUF) and a £3m contribution from the council.

The council’s planning committee approved a further £3 million to be added to the project budget.

Around £1m of the funds is to account for additional project costs and £2m as emergency money due to instability in the construction sector.

The £2m money will remain under the council’s direct control rather than in the construction contract, which the council says will give it an “extra layer of budgetary control”.

The money is likely to be funded through borrowing and could see the council pay £175,000 in funding costs a year on top of the £3m.

The report said the alternative to not approving the funds was to stop the project and take on the costs of repaying the LUF grant to the government and any fees incurred as a result.

Council leader Martin Lury told them Local Democracy Reporting Service “it wasn’t an ideal situation” to be in and that he was “frustrated” with growing up.