I read Basildon councillor Kevin Blake’s comments on the town’s arts scene with little surprise (Nov 2).

He says he has found the whole business with Old Man Stan quite tiresome.

This is his response, as cabinet member for arts and leisure, to a local art group who are merely asking for more, a local art group who dare to criticise.

Is this the sort of attitude we should expect from somebody in his position?

He and his colleagues keep bleating on about how much they do for the arts in Basildon. We keep asking them to tell us what exactly it is, but they never seem to say.

Councillor Blake and others, such as Malcolm Buckley, keep mentioning Basfest and the “many successful shows they’ve put on at the Towngate since they re-opened it”. Is that it?

They always seem to forget to mention that it has only been running again for a short while in the bigger picture of our town’s history, offering a diet of basically tribute acts and Z-listers.

Notice how they forget to mention the years it was kept closed by their administration.

Of course, our group would like to see an arts festival in Basildon. It is more than overdue.

Basildon would benefit from an arts festival.

However, at no point have we as a group ever asked them if they would organise such a festival.

At the mere mention of the idea, they warn it would be at the expense of existing funding. Then, in some kind of PR spasm, they thought it best if they at least appear to be ing to consider some proposals.

We can read them like a book. But this is all just the usual arrogance.

We shudder at the thought of them attempting to put on such an event, because we know they haven’t got a clue.

They don’t understand any of the points we are trying to put across. They re-open the theatre they closed, run the inherited Basfest and think that’s it.

Mr Blake’s claim that we are ridiculing Basildon in the Old Man Stan videos is completely untrue.

This is just a cheap shot at trying to turn our audience against us, and it won’t work.

We love Basildon and are proud to live here. You only have to watch our videos to see that.

There is absolutely no malice in our videos and we don’t think we offend Basildon residents.

We think Mr Blake and his team are the ones who are ridiculing Basildon, by way of what they offer the town and the level of encouragement they give the local artistic community.

Our experience of the council’s so-called arts department leaves us with no desire to speak to them.

Steve Waters
The Ugly Wuggly Puppet Company
The Fryth
Basildon