Staff at Kingston's new theatre will be made redundant on Tuesday unless £3million pledged by the council's executive is released by then, writes Hannah Summers.

That was the stark warning from the Liberal Democrat Leader of the Council, Councillor Derek Osbourne, to the Conservatives who chair the council's Community Leadership and Resources Overview Panel.

The Tories have demanded a major debate on the future of the theatre and claim they cannot hold this tomorrow (June 30), when the panel is scheduled to meet.

They say they want a full day's debate on the issue and this will not be possible until early next month as they need to quiz key people including Sir Peter Hall and Michael Holding, the theatre consultant who helped design the building in Charter Quay.

They have listed 15 areas of concern they want examined from the impact on council tax to how much community groups will be able to use the theatre.

Conservative leader Kevin Davis said: "This is the biggest investment this council has made since its election and it should be carefully examined."

The Lib Dems have no objection to a debate and have ensured that all bar the most sensitive financial issues can be debated in public.

But they accuse the Tories of playing party politics by deliberately delaying this key meeting.

This could force council chief executive Bruce McDonald to take the extraordinary step of bypassing the panel altogether and approving the funding himself to protect either the council or the public interest.

This has been done in the past, but not since the council was modernised in May 2002.

Coun Osbourne said: "The timescale has been made clear (to the Conservatives) and has been ignored. I can understand their concern to do a proper scrutiny but they have known the deadline since the end of May and have had plenty of time to organise a review.

"To have shows available for production as soon as the theatre is open (September 2006), the building process needs to commence in July. Also staff are under notice which expires on July 5, at which point they will become redundant if plans have not been set in motion."

This would include the chief executive and director of finance, and without his team it is almost certain that Sir Peter Hall would pull-out leaving the whole theatre project in ruins.

Don't miss next week's Surrey Comet for the latest on this story.