Anger as South Bank loses cash

SIR BRIAN Corby is expected to announce today that he will be standing down as chairman of the South Bank Centre in London.

Sir Brian, the former chairman of Prudential plc, is known to have been angered by the failure of the Arts Council and the Secretary of State for Culture, Chris Smith, to approve lottery cash for a pounds 131m development plan, with a glass roof - designed by Lord Rogers - covering the Royal Festival Hall, Hayward Gallery and other parts of the centre.

Sir Brian said recently: "We are feeling very angry. There is a limit to the preparedness of the directors to carry on

"Many board members have worked prodigiously hard and having cleared, as they thought, the last hurdle, they are fed up."