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Loan boost for gun battery
A COUNCIL will lend £78,000 to a historical visitor attraction while it waits for lottery cash to come through.
Hartlepool Borough Council will give the money to the Heugh Gun Battery Trust while bosses wait for a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
The money will be used to pay for two part-time staff to help manage, develop and market the scheme.
The renovation of the Heugh Gun Battery involves new toilets, a cafe, new staff and interactive facilities.
Work on the site, which was the scene of the first exchange on British soil during the First World War, is progressing well and the scheme is due to be completed in August.
The site is being developed as a visitor attraction as part of the North Hartlepool Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) programme.
The council already has a bridging finance agreement with the trust which was approved in April last year.
The trust secured 539,000 for the restoration of the historical site with 299,000 coming from the North Hartlepool (SRB) and 240,000 from the HLF.
The council agreed to loan the money to the trust until the grant, awarded retrospectively, arrives. The council has the power to provide bridging finance to regeneration projects in Hartlepool to allow them to carry on with work during periods of cash-flow difficulties while they wait for the retrospective funding.
The trust would have faced severe cash flow problems if the council hadn't agreed to loan the money because it does not have the resources available.
The trust wrote to the council's cabinet committee asking for permission to extend the existing bridging finance agreement to include the 78,000.
The council's chief finance officer, Mike Ward, said: "The previous cabinet report related to a capital grant approval, but due to an oversight did not include an element of revenue grant which has also been awarded to the trust.
"This current report seeks to rectify the situation by requesting approval to extend this bridging finance facility to include the revenue grant, which amounts to 78,000 over two years."
The council's cabinet committee approved the request to include the revenue grant of 78,000.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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