DEREK Barr – the man credited with steering Fairfield Halls through a financial crisis – has been made an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

He retires next week after a 40-year career at the entertainment complex, the last 18 as chief executive.

When he took over in 1992, Fairfield was receiving a £1.3 million-a-year grant from the council.

That was chopped by the then Labour council around five years ago and since then the only support Fairfield has received has been for essential repair bills to keep the halls structually functioning.

For Mr Barr and the Fairfield board that has meant taking a more commercial approach to programming and ticketing.

The feeling is that, although reserves have had to be used, he has kept up Fairfield's reputation as a premier entertainment centre in London and the south east.

It is this achievement – together with his long-standing commitment to the arts scene in Croydon – which Dudley Mead, chairman of the Fairfield board, believes has led to his honour for services to music and the arts.

Mr Mead said: "I am absolutely delighted for Derek.

"He has changed what was effectively a local government department, dependent on (its) grant, into something which is now almost commercially viable."

A "delighted" Mr Barr praised the support he had received from "everyone involved with Fairfield" over the years.

He said: "It is the change at Fairfield from local government control to a far more commercial character which has been the greatest challenge.

"The fact is Fairfield is still working and moving in the right direction."

As he steps down, the venue where he has spent so much of his life will retain "a special place" in his heart.

Mr Barr added: "I now hope to see it go forward and for it to get redeveloped."

The council has committed itself to a £10 million investment in the complex and has commissioned top architects Keith Williams, to come up with a long-term strategy to restore the buildings.

This is likely to include an upgrading of the concert hall, improved theatre space and better use of the Arnhem Gallery.

Mr Barr is being succeeded as chief executive by Simon Thomsett, who headed the successful revival of the Hackney Empire theatre in north London.