TWO arts venues threatened with impending closure have been given a stay of execution.

Darlington Civic Theatre will remain open for another year while it is put on the market as a going concern.

And the town’s Arts Centre will continue to be subsidised – although on a reduced budget – while alternative methods to run it are explored.

Darlington Borough Council’s proposals will initially reduce the number of its expected redundancies by 115.

The Civic Theatre had been expected to close in the summer if no alternatives arose, following the loss of its subsidy.

The council will keep it open until January 2012, partly for contractual reasons as a number of acts are already booked for the autumn and winter season.

The theatre will be put on the market either for sale or to lease as long as it remains a theatre.

Peter Parlour, from the Friends of Darlington Civic Theatre, said: “It is in everyone’s interests to keep it open.

We want the theatre to stay as it is. I’m very proud of it and now is the time to support it.”

The Arts Centre will remain open while talks continue with the Arts Council, production groups and Darlington for Culture, a body set up to save arts provision in Darlington.

Paul Harman, chairman of the Darlington for Culture steering group, congratulated the council for finding the money.

He said: “Now local residents and community- based cultural organisations are ready to join in partnership with the council to create a sustainable future for arts and culture.”

An Arts Council spokesman said it would work to “ensure that people in Darlington continue to have access to great art”.

The recommendations form part of the authority’s latest budget announcement for the next four years.

The council has amended the amount it must save over that period from £22m to £20m, but warned that a fundamental review of council funding in two years may change that.

Many of the council’s earlier proposals remain unaltered, including a library service review, reducing subsidised bus services, arts and sporting events in the town, management restructure, staff pay freeze, closing toilets and cutting back services.

Changes to the draft measures are keeping bowling greens open for another year, deferring a reduction in town centre management role and a school transport policy and trying to find a new grant for cycle training.

Council leader John Williams expressed his gratitude to those who have helped find ways of maintaining services, but added: “This is the most significant reduction in funding we have ever faced and most of the proposals remain as we set out in November.”

Conservative councillor Charles Johnson remained cautious about the difference in Government-announced figures and those from the council, and said he would seek to clarify the matter before the proposals are discussed in council.

He said: “I am very pleased that the Arts Centre and Civic Theatre have been re-considered.

I am worried about the number of redundancies because, over the next four years, the total grant reductions are going to the same.”

Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Martin Swainston said: “It is a relief there has been a stay of execution.

“We hope there can be additional funding from the private and public sector coming together to safeguard them.

“It is very welcome breathing space for both venues.”

The proposals will be debated at a meeting of the council’s cabinet on Tuesday at 5pm.