Archive Centre for Dumfries still on cards despite HLF setback
Dumfries and Galloway Council is looking into funding options for its new Archive Centre after the Stage One funding bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) was unsuccessful. The Council had bid for £2.7million from the HLF, but this bid was not approved in a recent round of funding decisions.
HLF cited intense competition from around the UK as the main contributory factor in the failed bid, but did state that a revised project by our Council would be considered as the basis for a new application in the future.
The Council is now exploring ways of financing the Archive Centre, which will be based at The Ewart Library site in Dumfries. Councillor Tom McAughtrie, who is Chairman of the Council’s Community and Customer Services Committee said the Council was fully committed to pushing on with plans for the Centre despite this funding setback. He commented;
“A new Archive Centre for Dumfries and Galloway is long overdue and something that our Council is committed to providing for both the people of the region as well as visitors to the area. It is important that we have a modern facility to allow visitors to the centre access to state of the art search facilities. Our Council will be keeping the Archive Centre development work high on its agenda over the coming months and a report will come to Community and Customer Services committee in due course detailing our Council’s plans for the Archive Centre.”
The proposed Centre is set to hold over 6km of records and will increase public access to archives and local studies. As well as this, the development will aid the regeneration of Dumfries Town Centre.
Vice Chair of the Community and Customer Services Committee, Councillor John Martin said;
“Whilst it is a blow to receive this news from HLF, it is not all doom and gloom. There is clearly high demand for grants from the HLF and they have informed us that any revised project we submitted would be considered as a new project, so this is something that our Council may look at.”
A Heritage Lottery Fund spokesperson said:
“The Heritage Lottery Fund recognises the importance of the Dumfries and Galloway archive to the community. However, we were unable to provide a grant for this application because demands for funding were high and decisions had to be taken on more projects than the available budget could support. We are happy to discuss with the Council opportunities for developing the project with a view to the best way forward.”
A report will go before Elected Members later this year detailing Dumfries and Galloway Council’s plans for the Archive Centre, including how our Council plans to fund the project.
Main picture , The stair case inside the Ewart Library Building Copyright DGWGO
