I STRONGLY oppose the Conservatives’ decision to break their manifesto pledge to ‘protect money’ for S4C through their spending review announcement of further cuts of 26% to the channel’s grant. This is on top of a 93% cut to the channel’s annual grant over the past five years.

I call upon the British Government to revoke the cut announced in the spending review.

As a matter of principle I oppose austerity, but it must be noted that the cuts to S4C are much higher than those to other bodies. Cuts to the Westminster Government’s culture department were 5.1% over the same period, compared with a cut of 26% to S4C. Furthermore the Government and the BBC have indicated that there will be further cuts to the licence fee money which S4C receives.

While there are further cuts to S4C, the culture department of the Conservative Government will increase the sums of money available to a large number of institutions in England such as Tourism England, Sports England and Arts Council England. BBC World Service will also receive an extra £289 million over five years.

Instead of risking the existence of our only Welsh language TV channel, the Conservative Government should increase S4C’s budget and establish a statutory funding formula that ensures a growing budget for the channel, thereby keeping the Conservative Party’s manifesto pledge.

SUSAN CAREY

Trefdraeth