A PETITION has been launched by volunteer staff at Margate’s historic Theatre Royal.

They are desperate not to see the venue taken over by Thanet council and run as a community arts centre.

It may be the final act of defiance in a long-running funding saga that could see the curtain falling on the country’s second oldest provincial theatre in April before it re-opens in September in a new guise funded mainly by the district council, Kent council and the Arts Council.

Sir Alistair Hunter, Theatre Royal Trust chairman, confirmed that the deal is very likely, provided the sale to the council is before the end of this financial year and that independent valuations and surveys are successfully completed.

Without the rescue package the theatre would close and probably go into receivership.

The council wants to lease the Royal back to the Trust to secure its survival as a vital part of Thanet’s arts, leisure and cultural future.

The district council will pump £75,000 into the theatre and KCC £50,000, with the Arts Council spending £100,000 over the next two years and the East Kent Partnership providing £25,000 for transition costs.

Sir Alistair said trustees had “agonised through sleepless nights” because the package will mean staff redundancies and a radical change in programming.

Two three-week segments of box office programming and a five-week festive show will leave about 40 weeks for community-based arts projects, including amateur dramatics, theatre-in-education and youth-centred bookings.

Thanet council leader Cllr Sandy Ezekiel said: “The Royal will become a community-based arts centre and civic theatre, while Margate Winter Gardens will cater more for conferences, business events, major shows, productions and concerts.

Theatre Royal general manager Michael Wheatley-Ward thanked loyal Royal supporters. He added: “Our theatre is haunted and last Friday night an inexplicable mist appeared in the air from the ceiling to the edge of the circle.

“It was a strange phenomenon I have never seen before, even the spirits here may be unsettled by what is going on.”