A CAMPAIGN to save Spring Gardens Arts Centre, in High Wycombe, has been launched by Labour county councillor Julia Wassell.

The centre, a former school owned by Buckinghamshire County Council, is set to close at the end of the month to make way for redevelopment, but at Thursday's council meeting Cllr Wassell pointed out that the £12,000 a year it would cost to protect the empty building from vandalism was £2,000 more than the money needed to run it.

Mark Taylor, cabinet member with responsibility for the county council's properties, said it might be possible to give the centre another year's grace if the cost of keeping it open was lower than the estimated cost of mothballing it.

He asked Cllr Wassell to prepare a report for him.

Spring Gardens had its money withdrawn in 1997, when the county council made huge budget cuts, but the centre remained open when Wycombe District Council stepped in with £10,000 a year.

However district funding has now stopped.

The centre was run by a voluntary management committee headed by Malcolm Blanksby

Cllr Wassell said she would like to see an arts centre included in the development.

Cllr Blanksby said community arts needed a focal point in High Wycombe and without the centre there would not be one.

"If this could happen it will be good news," he said.

"Lots of people benefit from the centre. It doesn't cost a great deal of money.

"I think it is to be regretted that the council has failed to support it. The loss of community facilities in that part of High Wycombe is very sad.

"Anything that enables it to survive in the short term is to be welcomed.

John Beaumont, chairman of Wycombe Arts Festival, agreed saying the town needed a centre dedicated to community arts.

"Arts are a living body, and the arts are flourishing in High Wycombe," he said. "But they do need a central space."

He thinks the library in the town centre would be ideal, once Wycombe's new one is built as part of the Western Sector development.

Cllr Blanksby said the centre was not just about performing arts but about getting the community involved in everything from painting and pottery to belly dancing.

Spring Gardens could get by on £5,000 a year, which worked out at 30p a year for each of the 15,000 people who used it, he said.