Cash row over £120k museum is resolved
A £120,000 new museum project is safe for the time being as funding will be available until the end of June, it was confirmed today.
The project to move Ludlow Museum into the Buttercross grade I-listed building at the top of the town's Broad Street hit a funding crisis last week as bosses were told they had to spend the entire £120,000 by the end of this month or lose it.
Shropshire Council said money earmarked for the scheme to transfer the museum from Ludlow Assembly Rooms would no longer be available after March 31, which also threatened to scupper a planned overhaul and modernisation there.
Ludlow Mayor, Councillor Jim Smithers, said there had been an informal crisis meeting with Shropshire Council officers on Wednesday and town clerk Gina Wilding was working hard on finding a solution.
Now Ludlow Town Council has been told the money, from the Market Towns Revitalisation Programme (MTRP), will be available until June 30 as originally planned.
Newly elected Shropshire councillor for Ludlow North, Andy Boddington, said: "This is excellent news. It has been what everyone in Ludlow has been hoping and pressing for. Now we can finish our new museum, a project vital for our tourist economy."
The relocation of the museum will also free up space in the Assembly Rooms, allowing it to create a new entrance and strengthen its role as our main cultural centre.
Mr Boddington added: "Everyone wins from this decision. I am still puzzled why this row blew up in the first place. It was always common sense to roll over the grant to the next financial year.
"I hope that Shropshire Council will work more closely with Ludlow and its councillors in the future to prevent a repeat of a situation like this. The onus is now on the town council to ensure the Buttercross project is completed by the end of June."
Ms Wilding said: "Many people in Ludlow will be relieved and delighted at this news. It allows us to pick up this project again, reassure contractors and put out for tender."
She said a revised timetable for the work had been sent to Shropshire Council in January requesting an extension until this September, to give the project a full year for completion and she was still hoping that might be granted.
Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for culture and leisure, said: "
I know that there has been some concern and uncertainty in Ludlow about the date by which the MTRP grant must be spent. However, we have confirmed to Ludlow Town Council that they will be able to continue to spend their MTRP grant until June 30, as per their contract."
