ARTS groups in Colchester can be given no assurances about funding in the current economic climate, a meeting heard.

Attempts to guarantee Colchester Council funding for the Mercury Theatre, the Arts Centre and Firstsite have been rejected by cabinet members.

Nick Barlow, councillor responsible for the arts, said it would not make a commitment to funding the arts bodies as it does not know the amount of Government cash it will get.

He said: “It is to stop tying our hands because we don’t know what is coming down the line to us. It’s my intention we will continue funding the arts venues.”

The arts centre gets £81,000 from the council, while Firstsite gets £200,000 and the Mercury Theatre gets £295,000.

An overview and scrutiny panel meeting of the council was told in March that the money helped 300 people stay in jobs and funded thousands of events attended by hundreds of thousands of people.

Christopher Arnold, panel chairman, said the council should recognise the tourism and education benefits the organisations bring to Colchester. The coalition cabinet of Lib Dem, Labour and independent councillors agreed that: “The council should continue to consider giving annual grants to the arts providers.”

An attempt to guarantee the groups funding for three years, rather than just for the next 12 years, was rejected.

Mr Barlow said: “Given what we’ve heard, our funding is not secured for the next two or three years.

“If we say in two years you can have this and we get a 20 to 30 per cent budget cut, we’re in trouble.”