Music Upbeat: Watford Gap

A meeting of Labour-controlled Watford Council on Tuesday is to decide the future of one of Britain's most treasured recording and performing venues, generally referred to as Watford Town Hall. With its spacious, alive acoustic, the auditorium of the Watford Assembly Halls has long attracted top-notch recordings such as the award-winning Mahler Second Symphony from the CBSO under Simon Rattle. However, the idea of mothballing the Assembly Halls for a year (saving pounds 395,000 in running costs) forms a major plank in proposals to cut pounds 3m in local spending to meet Government limits on the new Council Tax. Some fear morticians will succeed mothballers.