VIDEO: Worthing’s world-famed Wurlitzer under threat

Worthing Council has given Sussex Theatre Organ Trust a year’s notice to end the contract which ensures the £500,000 instrument remains at its present venue, which is acclaimed for its acoustic qualities.

The council wants a free hand in arranging for someone else to run its theatre venues, which council tax payers are currently subsidising to the tune of £1.3million a year.

But organ owner Jim Buckland, the 92-year-old chairman of the organ trust, told the Herald they would fight “tooth and nail” to keep the organ in situ, and the matter was now in the hands of the trust’s solicitors.