Plans for a performing arts academy in Burnham have been abandoned after the project failed to attract enough money.

The music hub for performance and tuition is thought to cost between £25,000 and £26,000 to be properly set up, but so far has only received £5,000 from the town council.

The Rev Dr Jon Morgan, 54, of the United Reformed Church, has now been forced to drop the plan to have the academy in Belvedere Road until he can find somewhere else with a cheaper lease.

Mr Morgan, who has been a minister for 16 years and was the principal of the Cambridge Academy of Music and Performing Arts, said: “I’m very disappointed.

“I put six months of extra work into it and nothing has come of it."

See this week's Burnham Standard for the full story.