Purpose

To seek the Cabinet Member's approval to provide a loan to the Arkwright Society from the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site reserve to the value of £62,154.

Decision

That the Cabinet Member approves a loan to the
Arkwright Society from the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site reserve to
the value of £62,154 on the terms detailed in the report.

Reasons for the decision

It
is recommended that the loan is provided as the Council administers the DVMWHS
reserve on behalf of the DVMWHS Partnership. 
The Partnership’s highest decision-making body, the Strategic Board, has
approved the loan to the Arkwright Society. 

 

If
the Arkwright Society is not able to secure monies to address its imminent
financial pressures it is likely that it will need to make extensive redundancies.  This in turn is likely to impact on the
running of the Cromford Mills site – a key destination in the DVMWHS.

Alternative options considered

Not to provide the loan to the Arkwright
Society:  The negative impacts of this
are at least twofold:

 

The
Council is the accountable body for the Partnership.  The Partnership’s highest decision-making
body is its Strategic Board. If the Council was not to provide a loan from the
Partnership’s reserve, after the Strategic Board had approved such an action,
it would erode trust between the Partnership and the Council.

 

The Arkwright Society is
responsible for the Cromford Mills site, a premier destination in the DVMWHS, and has saved and repurposed the site which in part
helps to fulfil the UK Government’s commitments to Article 4 of the World
Heritage Convention. If the Arkwright Society is unable to continue to
undertake these activities, it will impact on the UK Government’s commitments
to UNESCO.  This is particularly
important now, as it is expected that UNESCO, at the invite of UK Government,
will send an Advisory Mission to the DVMWHS early in
2024 to review the World Heritage Site’s management.