John has supported the charity running the Todmorden Hippodrome to win a grant of over £800,000 from the Todmorden Town Bid programme initiated by central government. The funds will be to restructure and rebuild much of the inside of the premises to include new rehearsal and performance spaces. new community workshop room and storage spaces. Interestingly, the information for the application was based on a previous significant application – which was unsuccessful! They put on such good performances at the Hippodrome – and do great work with the children’s and young people’s theatre groups.