THERE was a collective sigh of relief around the offices of three centres of art in Salisbury last Friday, following the publication of the Arts Council's funding for the next three years.

Despite a difficult financial climate, the council has decided to continue its grants to Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury Festival and Salisbury Playhouse.

All three will get increases in their annual grants, despite severe pressure on the Arts Council finances caused by a "disappointing settlement" for the arts in the government's last spending review.

The biggest share goes to Salisbury Playhouse, with £792,381 for this year into next year, £814,171 for 2006/07 and £836,561 for 2007/08.

Salisbury Arts Centre, which is due to reopen later this year after refurbishment, is to get £190,000 this year, £250,000 in 2006/07 and £256,875 in 2007/08.

Salisbury Festival gets £163,683 this year, £168,184 for 2006/07 and £172,809 for 2007/08.

Nick Capaldi, south-west executive director for Arts Council England, said that, despite a tough financial climate, arts in the south-west was thriving.

He said: "However, in rewarding this success, we have had to make some tough choices.

"We have not been able to offer increases across the board, so we have tried to come up with a financial strategy to make the best of a difficult situation.

"We feel it is important to invest properly in the organisations we do fund, rather than trying to spread ourselves too thinly."

Mr Capaldi said that, in a small number of cases, the council was making more significant increases in funding.

"These are organisations with major refurbishment projects, where we want to ensure not only that they have buildings of the highest quality but that they can invest in the quality of the art that takes place in those buildings."

He said their aim now was to redouble energies to secure a better settlement for the arts in the 2006 spending review.