Position Statement – Belper North Mill Trust – April 2022
Who are Belper North Mill Trust?
The Trust is a registered charity and is run by Trustees with the support of an experienced and committed volunteer base and two part time staff.
We aim to celebrate, interpret and educate about the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site (DVMWHS), with a particular reference on Belper.
The charity operates both a museum and visitor centre at Belper North Mill. Pre COVID we would have around 4,000 visitors a year in the museum and on our walks and talks. A further 2,000 visit the visitor centre. Additionally we provide:
- Educational sessions for local primary school aged children.
- Volunteering opportunities for local people which provide benefit to wellbeing and community, including social events.
- Volunteering opportunities for university and college students, including for students with additional needs, which improve skills and employability.
- Work with other local Arts and Cultural organisations to support activities and events around Belper and the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.
- Support historians and those studying local history with research.
- Provide school holiday activities and events.
- Direct visitors to other local attractions and shops.
Our museum is accredited with Arts Council England.
Why is the museum closing?
Following the ending of the £47,600 AVBC grant in March 2022 and the Landlords plan to let the museum space at commercial levels from October 2022, the Trust is not able to run the museum on a financially viable basis. We would be incurring annual losses of circa £70,000, which is clearly not sustainable.
The Museum will therefore close at the end of October 2022. Arranging the closure means that public access will cease at the end of September 2022. Ongoing discussions are taking place with the Landlord to retain public access to the basement which would allow public access to that area.
We will work with Arts Council England on actions to maintain our current museum accreditation, this is so we can keep the option of re-opening a museum in the future.
What will happen to the collections?
The majority of our collections are on loan from other museums and organisations. Our preference would be to keep the collections together, mothballed in storage, if this is viable. If not, we will liaise with the owners on their return and request that these are made available for public display.
What public access to the Belper Mills site will there be in the short term?
Our preference is to continue to operate a museum and visitor centre from our current space. But it needs to be on financially viable terms.
For the Short term – We are currently discussing options with the Landlords agent, First Investments, for an alternative base on the site. This would be a significantly smaller base than current, it would not be a museum, but it would enable public access to the site where and “inside and outside” tour of the Belper Mills site could operate from.
This would be an interim base, until a more suitable base for a heritage offer was viable at the site.
So what is the long term plan for a heritage offer at the Belper Mills site?
Our “long term accommodation” preference would be a financially viable quality heritage offer at the Belper Mills site, integral with the overall redevelopment of the site. The recent Derbyshire County Council report “Options for a Visitor Centre at Belper” identified various options for how such a centre could operate. The Trust is in support of development at the Belper Mills site as identified in that report.
Additionally, the current owners in their opening paragraph of the Belper Mills site Planning Statement stated “First Investment Real Estate Management (‘FIREM’) has a Vision to provide new homes, leisure and business uses to the Mills to complement the North Mill Museum and existing business to create a visitor destination that celebrates the importance of Belper Mills as part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Sites”. We share their vision of a visitor destination worthy of representing the World Heritage Site.
For the Longer Term – For any viable public heritage based offer to operate from the site it will require the collaboration and will of a number of stakeholders (Local Authorities, the Belper Mills owner, Historic England and external funding bodies). The Trust will support this, but is not a leading player in this collaboration as we are only a tenant on the Belper Mills site.
How were we funded until March 2022?
Our previous underlying budget position, assuming a full recovery of visitor numbers post COVID was:
| Income | £’000 |
| Amber Valley Borough Council Grant | 48 |
| Belper Town Council Grant | 11 |
| Museum takings | 28 |
| Other income | 3 |
| 90 | |
| Expenditure | £’000 |
| Lease costs (for museum) | 60 |
| Staff Costs (two part time staff) | 30 |
| Other running costs | 20 |
| 110 | |
| Budgeted loss | 20 |
There are around 50 Volunteers (including Trustees), who each year volunteer approx. 5,600 hours to support the offer. This has a notional value of £120,000, using Heritage Lottery Fund methodology.
With the ending of the AVBC Grant in March 2022, the Trust’s underlying losses would be around £70,000 a year.
Withdrawal of Amber Valley Borough Council (AVBC) grant
The Trust was informed in August 2021, that the Leader of AVBC had made an Executive Decision to end the (£47,600) annual grant from the Council to the Trust (to operate the museum & visitor centre), from April 2022.
This will end the Council’s 25 year plus association with the Trust in supporting the operation of the museum and visitor centre.
Why don’t we just use our £400,000 reserves to continue to operate the museum?
The Trust has approx. £400,000 in reserves. The majority of this (£340,768) is from a bequest received from Canon Ross (a former Trustee) in 2016. There are no restrictions placed against it. The balance of reserves are from COVID support grants.
Trustees could decide to use the reserves and fund the circa £70,000 a year losses for a few years.
However, Trustees have decided that this is not the best use of the Charity reserves. The preferred plan for the reserves is explained in the following question.
So what is the Trustees plan for the £400,000 reserves?
The reserves policy is published in the Charity’s financial statements – the policy is:
An earmarked reserve has been created with the Canon Ross bequest of £340,768 and it is the intention of the Trustees that this original sum is not used to fund day to day costs, but towards securing the Trust’s future operation and long term accommodation, described as its ‘Development Program’.
The Trust could look to use the majority of its earmarked reserve as match funding towards external funding linked to creating a heritage based visitor centre to interpret, develop and preserve the heritage of the DVMWHS with a particular emphasis on the Belper Mills site.
Funding leverage. Most external funding grants require some contribution as match funding – some require a 10% match funding, so potentially a £300,000 contribution from the Trust could lever in a further £2,700,000 of external funding towards the heritage deficit of the site. Other stakeholders would consider match funding also, adding to the grants available for the site.
Conversely, for every £1 that is used from our reserves to fund current operations, there is potentially £9 lost from future grants for the site.
Hence the need to protect the Trusts reserves, to help realise the long term aim for the DVMWHS and Belper Mills site.
The balancing unrestricted general funds of circa £60,000 provide a contingency to cover exit costs from the museum, set up costs for a new smaller on site premises and likely short term losses from operating a smaller scaled offer from the Belper Mills site over the next few years.
How can you help?
Come and visit us whilst we are still open – check our website for opening times.
Strutts North Mill Museum – Home – Strutts North Mill Museum Belper (belpernorthmill.org.uk)
If you would like to offer some advice or assistance to the Trustees on our future plans, please contact treasurer@belpernorthmill.org
We will provide more information about our future as this develops.