Are these costs really necessary?

No direct threat is aimed at any particular building - the review would aim to identify business efficiencies for the future.

But the question will be asked, again, whether a town of Worthing's size really warrants having a trio of venues like the Pavilion Theatre, the Connaught Theatre and the Assembly Hall.

It could be asked at the outset, however, if there is the need to bring in outside consultants at such a cost to find out what many would say should be a straight-forward exercise for established management teams on the council payroll.

With this reservation in mind, any such review must concentrate on whether keeping all three such entertainment venues (however desirable the idea might be) is justified by the level of support their programmes attract.

In more prosperous times, a higher level of subsidies might be looked on more favourably by the council tax payers.

But the economic storm clouds seem ever more threatening, as evidenced in borough and county council reports.

For the eighth year running, the government has given West Sussex County Council the lowest possible grant (1.5 per cent increase) towards its services.

And at our borough level, the council forecasts that the likely shortfall in resources necessary to balance the budget over the next five years is in the region of 2,838,000.

While on the subject of money-saving ideas, the Herald doubts the necessity of the council's standards committee's recommendation that 9,000 be spent on an Ethical Governance Light Touch Health Check and Benchmark study to ensure "high standards of behaviour".

We are all aware of the importance attached to the way councillors and officers conduct themselves, but council tax payers shouldn't need to dig into their pockets to remind them of these principles...

They should be inherent in the way they already conduct themselves.

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