I SCOURED your article on arts funding decisions ("Creative Scotland under fire for youth theatre funding cut", The Herald, November 5) for the reasons given to Scottish Youth Theatre (SYT) for this seemingly inexplicable cut in the company's annual revenue funding.

I now discover that the decision is indeed inexplicable and now, for people both old and young across Scotland, unfathomable.

For Creative Scotland to decide that Scotland does not need or deserve an annual-revenue-funded national youth theatre is perverse and must be a source of concern to all who care about both young people and theatre. I have witnessed much of SYT's work over the past 15 years and have nothing but praise for the organisation and its work. Creative Scotland must now publish the evidence on which its decision was based so that we can weigh it up alongside our own experience of SYT's significant contribution to Scotland's cultural life.

John Stalker,

John Stalker Productions Limited,

6 Vanburgh Place, Leith, Edinburgh.