Andover MP Sir George Young has said he will do everything he can to ensure the town has the facilities it needs - and he has pledged his support for the Andover Advertiser campaign to save the theatre for the community.

Below he gives his personal view on the closure.

"One of the first buildings I went into in Andover was Cricklade Theatre. The local Conservatives had hired it on the evening of 21 November 1995 to select a new candidate.

"After appearing on the stage there, for the first and only time, I spent a nervous half hour backstage in a dressing room while the membership, filling the seats and standing in the aisles, debated the merits of the various candidates.

"Since then, I have spent many happier evenings there. I am a member of the popular Andover Music Club, which arranges quality recitals and chamber concerts in the theatre. I remember a marvellous production of Iolanthe by the Andover Operatic Society a couple of years ago.

"Brian Page and Andover and District Age Concern have put on great entertainment there, enjoyed by Andoverians young and old. Test Valley Brass are regular performers there; the Friends of Cricklade Theatre 25th Annual Drama Festival was held there, prior to the closure; Terry Trevett has organised some wonderful electronic organ concerts; and so I could go on.

"And now all this is under threat. Cricklade has closed for refurbishment, but unless a solution can be found, it is unlikely to re-open to the public. I have enormous sympathy for all the organisers who have made bookings in good faith, and now find the theatre is unavailable. They are now having to frantically search the town for alternative venues - what has happened to them is impossible to explain or defend.

"On a broader front, our growing, confident town - twice the size it was when the theatre opened - is to lose its 270 seat theatre, (having lost all its three cinemas); and this, according to the press release from Cricklade College, is apparently because a Government funding agency says that its money is being misapplied.

"The funding body for colleges such as Cricklade, the Learning and Skills Council have, again according to the college, informed the college that it will not allow LSC funding to maintain, develop or run the theatre. I have spoken to the chief executive of the LSC to hear his side of the story, and he was surprised at the current turn of events. I am trying to find out exactly what is going on.

"If current rules indeed prohibit the use of the theatre located in a college by the wider community, then those rules need to be changed.

"What is happening in Andover is unacceptable. As the local MP, I pledge myself to work with all parties involved to ensure we have the facilities we need.

"I believe we need a two stage response to the challenges that confront us. First, a short term one to enable Cricklade to continue to be used for the purposes I have outlined. Second, a longer term and more ambitious vision to provide a larger and better facility than the one we currently enjoy. I welcome the leading role of the Andover Advertiser in this campaign to secure for our town the cultural facilities it needs. I am with it, shoulder to shoulder."