Readers react to plans to scrap funding for Grantham's Gravity Fields Festival

Dismayed readers have written in about a council's plan to withdraw funding for Grantham's biennial science and arts festival.

Two weeks ago South Kesteven District Council put forward a proposal to scrap the £80,000 pot of money put aside each year which funds festivals across the district, including Grantham's Gravity Fields Festival, and put its future on the shoulders of the community.

There was a glimmer of hope last week, however, when the town's Charter Trustees announced at a meeting their bid to save the event.

This is what readers had to say.

• We were horrified to read that the Gravity Fields Festival is in danger of being cancelled this year.

It should have been held last year, but was postponed because of the worries about Covid and the lack of time for preparation.

As retired teachers, with 77 years of service between us, we enjoyed attending many lectures, talks, discussions, performances, exhibitions, shows etc.

Gravity Fields was spread all over the town and local area.

Over the past 10 years we have attended performances at the Meres, The Guildhall, St Wulfram’s Church, the marquee in the grounds of Woolsthorpe Manor and the Angel and Royal Hotel, as well as enjoying street performances.

After the first year we invited friends and family to join us and had guests from Leicester, York and Australia enjoying what Grantham had to offer.

The local schools will miss a valuable resource as many of the lectures were given by world-famous scientists and historians.

All the school pupils we saw at the various lectures were spellbound by the experience and many of them had searching questions to ask the lecturers.

The council say they haven’t got the money. They should try to find it as the festival brought in over a million pounds to the Grantham area last time it was held here.

There are many businesses that need a boost and this would help to provide it.

There was only one problem for us with the last programme. We couldn’t get to all of the sessions we would have liked, as there were several items overlapping and we wanted to go to them all.

Please, Councillor Cooke, use your £5,000 US training to sort out a festival which will benefit a very large number of your residents.

Alison and Brian Martin, Manthorpe estate, Grantham

• Having read your article about Gravity Fields (Journal, January 13), I felt compelled to advise you that I would be very sad to see the end of this event.

It is by far the best event that is put on in Grantham.

Ditch the carnival and the sad Christmas lights, or even the new one-way system, if you have to save money.

But save the only decently organised event that I have ever witnessed in Grantham.

The council is mad, in my opinion, to get rid of a fabulous educational event celebrating Sir issac Newton.

Peter Ellis, by email

• My family and I, plus visiting friends, attended many of the Gravity Fields events.

They were a marvellous contrast to the more light-hearted, but also enjoyable, local events normally held.

The festival was important in challenging our thinking, adding to our knowledge and enabling us to show some pride about Grantham’s history and people raised in the area; people who went on to influence the world such as, the philosopher and mathematician Isaac Newton, and the astronomer Arthur Storer.

We also have the wonderful St Wulfram’s Church and the oldest surviving inn in England, The Angel and Royal, and many other buildings of interest to attract visitors.

To have a town with a history probably dating back to the 6th century, which in this modern time is saying it can’t fund a festival to celebrate its history and encourage local pride, is a lack of insight and a tragedy.

Eva Newsam, Malvern Drive, Grantham

• It’s sad that Gravity Fields is under threat, as modern technology is based on Newton’s Laws.

Splitting white light into the colour spectrum is a modern form of communication.

Surely a lottery grant can help as children need an education on Newton, which in the long run can help them with jobs.

A volunteer at Woolsthorpe Manor, by email