Sir – It is encouraging to hear from councillor Bob Price about the redevelopment of Old Fire Station and Pegasus Theatre.

However, these are long-needed redevelopments of existing arts premises: their welcome improvement will not increase the stock of available spaces for use by performing arts professionals, students and local dance enthusiasts.

Pegasus is loved and respected for its generous welcome and outstanding work with young people, but is already intensively used and with its own rich programme of youth theatre and dance to accommodate.

It is perhaps misleading to call the redeveloped OFS an arts centre; according to the Crisis website a substantial part will be a Skylight Centre, and, therefore, principally dedicated to helping the single homeless by providing services, facilities and up to 50 workshops a week; in addition to arts and cultural organisations Crisis states that the building will also house health organisations, homeless charities and social enterprise agencies. Facilities for performance are the tip of the iceberg. Quality performing arts activity at every level needs the submerged mass of practical work that takes place in the studio: training, creating and rehearsing.

Local and visiting professionals and aspiring dancers in Oxford urgently need access to substantial space for regular daytime dance activity, properly equipped to meet the specific health and safety requirements (sprung dance floor, high ceilings, adequate heating and ventilation etc) of intensive dance and expansive movement.

Could councillor Price give more detail as to whether and how the new OFS development can meet this need, and the input of the Oxford arts community into the planning process?

All those interested in the arts in Oxford should attend the information evening at OVADA scheduled for Wednesday, October 28, where the proposed plans for OFS will be presented.

Susie Crow, Ballet in Small Spaces, Oxford