Somerset County Council has removed all funding for theatres across Somerset.

Louise Cook, Director of Taunton’s Taachi-Morris Arts Centre, believes that the decision could have a massive impact on the local community.

She said: "The arts is often perceived as an easy target for government funding cuts, in that it can be seen as an extravagance.

“But what is often overlooked is the enormous impact of the arts across the whole community, in developing skills and creativity, reducing isolation and loneliness, promoting health and well-being, and developing community cohesion - not to mention its role in challenging and bringing into question the world around us.

“As a community arts organisation bringing people together is at the heart of everything we do at the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre. This means it isn’t just the more tangible arts funding cuts that effect organisations like ours.

"Job losses and increasing unemployment, transport cuts and reductions in bus subsidies, closing youth clubs and day care services – all these things mean that those who depend on our services most (younger people living in rural areas, isolated older people, low income families, individuals accessing day care or mental health services) become increasingly isolated: geographically, socially and culturally.

“Clearly with a 25% budget cut announced yesterday by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and Somerset County Council’s budget being reduced by a quarter, it is understood that we all need to tighten our belts (and no organisations are more au fait with this than voluntary and community organisations).

"It seems ironic though that Councils around the country will be forced to make these cuts to the very same community-led arts organisations where the ‘new idea’ of a Big Society has been flourishing for centuries."

Robert Miles, Director of The Brewhouse Theatre and Arts Centre, is currently in talks with Somerset County Council and is expected to make a statement early next week.