Restoration plans for Nottingham’s Memorial Gardens face funding shortfall

The Memorial Gardens, on Nottingham's Embankment
By Matt Jarram, Local Democracy Reporter

Plans to restore Nottingham’s Memorial Gardens to their former glory are still waiting to be confirmed.

Last year the city council was given £130,000 of stage one funding by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to draw up plans for the Gardens, which have fallen into a state of disrepair.

In August the council will submit a second bid to HLHF for £1.1m of stage two funding.

However, the council also needs to find more than £500,000 of match-funding for the project. And a report to its Executive Board has revealed that that funding is still not in place.

The report says: “At this stage, not all match funding has been secured and work will not commence until all is confirmed.

“Any variation will result in the project being either terminated until an alternative funding package can be identified, or redesigned.

“If the council is unsuccessful in obtaining all grant monies, this project will either stop or be redesigned.

“Until all funding is secured, the council will not enter into any contracts with developers. The opportunity of this funding is that it will reduce the burden on the current memorial site repairs and maintenance requirement, which is a limited fund with increasing pressures.”

The Grade II listed Gardens – on Victoria Embankment – were created more than 100 years ago to provide a living memorial to those to who gave their lives in both World Wars.

A decision on the £1.1m bid for stage two funding from HLHF is expected in December. The council also needs to secure the additional money over the next five months.

The plans for the Memorial Gardens are set to be discussed at Nottingham’s Executive Board on Tuesday, July 20.

The report prepared for councillors states: “Over the years, the gardens have fallen into a state of disrepair, albeit the infrastructure is mainly intact, some features within the garden require restoration, repair or replacement.

“For example, the Queen Victoria statue and the water fountain require restoration and the War Memorial and its under-croft, require repairs and the replacement of the toilet facilities.”

The total cost of stage two of the project is £1.28m capital, plus £410,000 revenue. The grant request from NLHF for stage two is £1.16m, and the project needs match-funding to the value of £534,000 from elsewhere. 

 

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