£1.2m funding shortfall not expected to delay new archive facility plans

Alec Doyle, Local Democracy Reporter

Plans for a new £12.9 million archive facility in north Wales are expected to go ahead despite a £1.2 million funding shortfall, after councillors agreed to set aside additional money to help cover rising costs.

The brand-new facility, which will replace Hawarden Rectory and Ruthin Gaol as the home for Flintshire and Denbighshire’s historical archives, was originally costed at £12.89m, with Flintshire contributing £3,027,782 and Denbighshire putting in £2,034,521.

The bulk of the funding – £7,371,397 – was awarded through the National Lottery’s Heritage Fund while Welsh Government contributed £300,000.

But during the design phase of the building – which will sit alongside Theatr Clwyd in Mold – inflation and changes in the process, which have included re-procurement of the design and build contractor and Land Transaction Tax – has added £1.187m to the cost.

The team behind the joint archive project is exploring funding options to bridge the gap but has asked existing stakeholders for additional funds in just in case those efforts are not successful.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has been asked to contribute an additional £264,000 and on Tuesday Flintshire’s Cabinet agreed to provide an additional £170,000.

Denbighshire County Council is expected to make a decision on a further contribution of £133,000 soon and the project team is working to identify Welsh Government funding streams that could help bridge the remaining gap.

Chief Officer for Education and Youth Claire Homard – who is leading the project – said that the approval of funding is a contingency as it is hoped that further streams of funding can be identified which mean  neither authority has to use the extra money allocated.

“We hope that we don’t need the additional funding but it was really important for the National Lottery Heritage Fund to see that if there is a potential shortfall by the end of all of the work that is being done that we did have that in principle agreement in place,” she said. 

“We are expecting the final funding decision from the National Lottery by the end of December. We’re working hard now and at pace to try and make sure that we’ve got as much of the cost covered as we can.”

The proposal to ringfence more money for the project was welcomed by Cllr Ted Palmer.

“A lot of work has got to where we are now and we were just on the edge of bringing it to fruition and I think to fall down at this point would be a travesty,” he said.

Councillors agreed to set aside the money in case it was needed.

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