THE news of Oxford Playhouse's financial troubles is deeply, deeply worrying for our city.

It is not our biggest employer, not is it our most famous institution, but it does what it does better than any other institution for miles around.

It is not only a beacon for art and culture in our city – a huge amount of it home-grown – it is also an independent business.

Similar cultural icons like the Ashmolean are owned by Oxford University, and don't have anything like the same precarious financial position, while our city's other big stage, the New Theatre, is owned by a national company and so also doesn't face the problem on the same scale.

Although the idea of redundancies there is heartbreaking, one is tempted to imagine that even those facing job loss are probably dedicated staff who love the theatre and what it does and would be greatly sympathetic to its plight.

Many of us do not go to the theatre on a regular basis, some of us may only go once a year, but we can all recognise the value the Playhouse brings to our city as a whole, and once it is gone, it will not be replaced by anything remotely comparable.

Closure should not be an option.