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Kingston Council has received a lowly two star rating for culture, despite last year’s opening of the Rose Theatre whose recent bailout was part-funded by the university.

The council's cultural provision was judged as merely “adequate”, meaning that it only “meets the minimum requirements” in the council’s first independent review since the Rose opened.  The rating had been higher in previous years.

Leader of Kingston Council Derek Osbourne said: “It shows that the system’s bollocks” and added he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the results. Cllr Osbourne claimed that the low culture rating was down to the results of an exercise survey of fifty people, as sport is included in this section of the assessment.

The theatre, which opened in January 2008, has been at the centre of controversy after it narrowly avoided closure last December.  The university agreed a £300,000 a year subsidy, while the council, which paid at least £5m of the original £11m construction costs, agreed to contribute £600,000 of tax payers’ money annually.

The results come as part of the council’s annual Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA), which assesses the standard of services the council provides across the board. It specifically rated resident satisfaction with theatres and concert halls as “below the lower threshold”, which means that the Council’s performance in this area is comparatively poor.

Cllr Osbourne said: “The culture block is the most widely criticised part of the CPA. It has precious little to do with culture. They are not locally specific indicators but set nationally by the Department for Culture Media and Sport, so it’s difficult to know what they are measuring. Are people saying I don’t want my money spent on the Rose Theatre, or are they saying they aren’t satisfied because it opened late or about the standard of performances?”

Kingston Council’s overall results were good. It was awarded three out of a possible four stars and classed as ‘improving well’.

Councillor Osbourne claimed that the only thing stopping the council getting a higher rating was their low cultural rating. He said: “There’s not a local authority in the country that doesn’t think the culture scores are random.”

Councillor Simon James, Executive Member for Planning and Regeneration, also dismissed the importance of the results. He said that he “did not put a lot of store by CPA results”.

Lucy Goldsborough, of the Rose Theatre, was shocked at the report’s findings. She said: “I am surprised that the cultural provision in Kingston has been brought into question, especially when there is so much happening. I believe that Kingstonians have a wealth of cultural opportunities both inside and outside of the Rose to choose from. It’s a shame that many of these have been seemingly overlooked.”