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'Positive' meeting on museum's future
Published Tuesday 11th October 11
A meeting to discuss funding took place this morning between the leader of Wellingborough Council, Cllr Paul Bell, and representatives from Wellingborough Museum.
At the meeting, the museum explained what they offer now and how the organisation is run, and a discussion was held on how they could develop this further in the future. Cllr Bell made suggestions about their budget, ways they could work more closely with the borough council, and ways they could access external funding.
Cllr Bell explained that a report would be going to the council's resources committee on 19 October recommending that the budget for the heritage category in the council's grants programme be allocated specifically to the museum. The whole grants budget has been reduced by 25%, and it is recommended that the museum will receive around 75% of its current level of funding. This will have to be approved by the resources committee before a final decision is made at full council in November.
Cllr Bell said: "It was a very positive and friendly meeting. We listened to the representatives from the museum as they explained in more detail what they do and how they do it, and we made suggestions about how we could work together to try and secure the organisation's future.
"We can make no promises about the level of long-term funding and the museum accepts that. Everyone knows that budgets are under a lot of pressure. But we are recommending a slight increase in the grant allocated to the museum and we are very keen to help them make that go as far as possible. We do not want to see the museum close."
Regular meetings will be held between both parties and the museum has extended an invitation to any borough councillor to go along and see first-hand what they offer.