WHEN Britt Ashmore asks "where will all the youth groups go if the Swan is closed?

On to the streets and into the bars?" (You Say, November 18), she highlights probably the most damaging consequence of losing our theatre.

Options for young people other than "the streets and the bars" are sparse enough without removing another one.

For those involved with the Swan, its loss represents the closure of a resource that is as much a part of the educational fabric of Worcester as the colleges, and a snuffing out of a brightness in their lives leaving only "the streets and the bars" in its place.

On the same page, Tory Councillor Barry Mackenzie-Williams affords us a glimpse into the mentality of someone who Oscar Wilde would describe as "knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing".

The councillor, in support of cutting the Swan's funding, deploys arguments about a lack of Government finance for the Swan that he does not believe in himself.

The record of his party on this in government is one of wholesale destruction of Local Government finance and, it has to be said, unrelieved by the present one.

The closure of the Swan will disgrace Worcester in the eyes of outsiders. They will look in amazement at an historical city of nearly 100,000 people unwilling to fund a modest theatre, and a council unable to comprehend its value to the cultural and educational life of the city and its fledgling artists.

They will see a city that prefers "the streets and bars" for its young people to them exploring the arts and their participation in them.

PETER NIELSEN,

Worcester.

I REMEMBER the day when the Theatre Royal closed and we had no theatre.

It was Dame Sarah Knight and Dame Peggy Ashcroft who worked hard to get the Swan Theatre built. We paid so much a brick.

Is all their hard work for nothing? I am quite sure there are some Worcester citizens who would gladly volunteer their time and some money to save the Swan.

MRS D COOK-HOPKINS,

Thorneloe, Worcester.

Blow to cultural life of the city

n I BELIEVE it is imperative to do everything possible to keep the Swan Theatre in existence. Without it, there would be a great, gaping hole in Worcester's cultural life.

One could argue that there are more important institutions, such as the hospital and schools and of course, these are vital.

However, I maintain that a trip to see live theatre can lift the spirits, boast morale, and promotes a sense of well-being like few other forms of entertainment.

When caught up in an excellent stage production, be it a drama, comedy play or musical, the audience is taken out of itself and inspired, and afterwards leaves the theatre the better for the experience.

A city the size of Worcester needs the Swan at the heart of its entertainment industry. The theatre's demise would signal the beginning of the descent into a cultural wasteland.

ROBERT COPPINI,

Stourport-on-Severn.

IF the 10,000 people who signed the petition urging Worcester City Council to subsidise the Swan Theatre, all gave £8 each, the Swan wouldn't need the extra money from the council's budget."

This is about the price of two packets of cigarettes, maybe a round of drinks - or are they only interested in the theatre if somebody else is paying?"

R GRAHAM,

Worcester.