The Coventry City Council was showered with benevolence when a charity organisation granted it a loan of about £3 million for the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum’s restructuring.
The famous charity organisation of Coventry, the Alan Edward Higgs charity has offered support in a big way to the council for the redevelopment plans, by giving them a loan extended over a period of three years at a liberal interest rate of 6 per cent. Besides, it is also granting an additional sum of £37,500 as aid to the council.
There is another charitable organisation contributing £50,000 that doesn’t wish to disclose its name.
The Coventry city council has planned to establish a trust board that would receive the loan amount. The board, in turn, will purchase yet another loan so that there is no discrepancy in repayments to Higgs charity. This second loan is over a period of 20 years and entails repayments of £260,000 a year, which will ultimately amount to £5.2 million.
However, John Mutton, opposition leader has something different to say. He said, “No matter how pleased I am (at the Herbert extension going ahead) I have to question these figures.” He added that he just couldn’t fathom why the board was undertaking a loan extended over such a long period, saying, “Perhaps there are more satisfactory ways - perhaps the trust needs another three months to examine things again.”
Meanwhile, deputy council leader, Tony O'Neill, found it “absolutely astonishing” that the Labour party had opposed the loan since they had laid restructuring plans for Herbert without bothering about the funds that their lofty redevelopment plans would require. In fact, he went ahead to divulge that the city council was still far from acquiring the required land for the expansion. He said, “The issue has always been one of funding. Now we have the money and the time to pay it back.”
The aid given by the Higgs charity will leave the council looking for another £3.2 million for the Herbert museum.
The Herbert museum’s redevelopment proposes the construction of a new art building which is scheduled to open in 2007 and will board city archives and novel art galleries.
Alan Edward Higgs Charity’s Sir Derek Higgs expressed happiness of the fact that the group was able to fund the museum’s restructuring phases. He was quoted as saying, "We have worked closely with the council to make this happen and will continue to do so over the coming months as the museum moves towards trust status.”
Posted
on : Fri, 20 May 2005 20:30 GMT | Loans News
By : Mike Lawson
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