2013 saw continued huge losses at the Rose Theatre, despite massive financial support from local Council Taxpayers and Kingston University.Councillor Howard Jones, Leader of Kingston's Conservative Councillors, demands answers.

“I have asked officers to prepare me a list of payments the council makes to the theatre.

We can see the overall lot but there should be a list of what we are getting for our money.

If we have a service level agreement we should be able to see if we’re getting value for money in terms of what we get for our half a million quid.”

Asked whether that agreement would be renewed if the Conservatives were in power by then, Councillor Jones said: “Depending on where we were at that particular time, if it came to the crunch and the council didn’t have any money then we wouldn’t be able to give any.

I think the council needs to work out its priorities and personally I think there are more important priorities than the theatre.

But that’s not to say that we shouldn’t sit down with them and figure out how it can survive.”