Could charity trust take over city museums and galleries?
COUNCIL WEIGHING OPTIONS FOR THE FUTURE AS FUNDING GAP RECKONING LOOMS
NOTTINGHAM Castle, Wollaton Hall and Newstead Abbey could end up being run by a charity amid concern about the possibility Nottingham City Council might sell them off.
Given the multi-million-pound gaps in its budget over the next few years, the council is trying to reduce the costs of running its museums and galleries.
The potential sale of sites was often floated after the council effectively declared bankruptcy in November last year.
Yet the council now says it has received concerns about the “significant impact on the city, communities and economy” that selling off such sites would have.
Although “partial” sales to organisations like the National Trust may be possible, the council says its preferred option is to set up a charitable trust covering its museums and galleries.
Other sites supported by the museums and galleries service, but not directly managed by it, include Green’s Windmill in Sneinton and Nottingham Industrial Museum at Wollaton Park.
The preferred option of setting up a charity trust is set out in a new report to b e presented at a meeting tomorrow.
The report, by head of culture and libraries Nigel Hawkins, says: “Bristol, Leeds, and Manchester [museums] are delivered in-house with an associated charitable development trust (Birmingham being a full trust under council control)... Nottingham is the only core city in England operating wholly in-house but without the charitable trusts.” Setting up a trust would mean the council still having a degree of control, but at a potentially far lower cost. As well as the opportunity for external funding for the running of the sites, other benefits of the trust would include exemption from corporation tax and VAT, business rates relief and Gift Aid – under which museums could claim an extra 25p for every £1 they receive.
David Mellen, the previous leader of the city council, said at the time of its effective bankruptcy notice that a full sale of heritage and cultural sites was unlikely.
He added: “Not only are they important for the heritage of the city, but they’re also a source of income.
“They’re significant for our tourist economy... They’re very unlikely to be sold, but we have to look at everything in terms of whether it earns us money or not and whether it would yield a receipt.”
The council now seems to be moving further away from the option of selling. The report says: “There are very few precedents for cultural or historic sites being ceased on a wholesale, service-wide basis... All stakeholders consulted expressed concern for the significant impact on the city, communities and economy under potential closure of any site.”
Yet the report leaves open the possibility of “partial disposals”, where only elements the service would be sold.
The report says: “There are no existing not-for-profit organisations (e.g. National Trust, English Heritage) who would be interested in taking on the service as a whole, although this may be a valid option when considering partial disposals. There are no existing commercial providers who would be interested in taking on the service as a whole, although again this may be a valid option when considering partial disposals.”
Details on the final option for the future of museums and galleries in Nottingham will be set out in the coming months.
The council is aiming to bring a business plan, setting out “structural delivery changes”, to councillors in the autumn.
The running of Nottingham Castle by a charity trust would mark yet another change of management for the site. The castle was run by councillors from 1878 until 2018, when it closed for a £31 million transformation.
Control was handed over to the Nottingham Castle Trust in May 2019, with the venue reopening in the summer of 2021.
After just over a year of operation, with issues including an alleged racist incident and complaints over ticket prices, the trust went into liquidation in November 2022 and the council took back control – reopening the site last year