The construction of a local alternative to London’s dominance of the UK art scene is set to open three years late it now emerges. Billed as becoming one of England’s major regional art centres, The Firstsite project in Colchester, Essex received it’s planning permission in February 2006 and was scheduled to open in spring 2008 at the cost of £16.5 million. In March 2007, Tessa Jowell, then secretary of state for the Department of Culture Media and Sport, described it as “an exemplary new cultural model”.
Work has now ground to a halt at the site due to disputes with the contractors, but the public has now been promised that Firstsite will be open by December 2010. It is particularly embarrassing to Arts Council England since, although they have been slashing arts budgets across the board in an effort to spend carefully, it was they who were one of the original investors, donating £7.75m. Last month an Arts Council spokesman said that they are satisfied that “everything possible” is being done to keep costs stable, and “major new build projects often take longer than initially estimated”.
