TEAMWORK, expansion and stronger community links are the goals of the new director of Bury's Met arts centre.

And Mr Ged Kelly (39), who takes over the reins from recently departed boss Alan Oatey, says he is looking forward to developing the Met's full potential.

Mr Kelly (pictured) is currently an arts officer with Leicestershire County Council and takes up his new position on August 9.

Originally from Liverpool, Ged has travelled a somewhat circuitous route to get here.

He started out as a sheet metal worker and spent several years in the 1980s running his own air conditioning business.

Ged moved to Milton Keynes and promoted bands and concerts, first as a hobby then a business, and became de facto manager of an arts centre after he went back to university to study leisure and tourism management.

He has also been involved in the development of the Canterbury Theatre, a historic mobile theatre which has toured the country since the 1950s, including Bury.

He says the time is right to move back up north nearer his roots, and get back to working with artists and the community at grassroots level. "Town centre venues like this normally have a lot of volunteers to help run it, but that's not the case here at present," he said. "There's lots of potential for the community to become more involved and take more ownership of the centre. I'll be trying to make these links with schools and voluntary groups."

On a strategic level, he says it is essential for the Met to fit in with the council's objectives and rebuild relationships with the regional arts board.

"It's a good chapter for the Met and I am pleased to be part of it. I hope I can fulfil the expectations of the board and its partners.

"The wrong thing is to come in now and say everything ought to be changed. I need a period of settling in to identify the areas which need substantial change.

"I am very much a team player rather than a dictator, I want everybody here to have a creative input into the direction of this organisation."

On specifics, Mr Kelly says there needs to be greater diversity in the programming, which can be nurtured through time.

"The cafe bar also needs a serious look at," he said. "It's closed in the evenings and weekends and needs a new lease of life. Like the studio theatre, it's under used.

"Also, we need to improve disabled access: at the moment people are taken to the theatre by the back corridor."

Mr Kelly added: "There's so much work to be done, where do you start? We cannot do everything overnight and my arriving is not going to radically alter things in a short time.

"I've not got all the answers but there's lots of scope for development and I'm looking forward to it."

A footnote for older readers! The last but one director of the Met, Richard Haswell, travelled the other way from Mr Kelly. He went to Leicester to the Phoenix Theatre and has just taken charge at De Montford Hall.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.