Cash-strapped Perth and Kinross Council has agreed to underwrite the Scottish Crannog Centre with up to £50,000 due to the centre’s potential “cashflow challenges” outwith its control.
The council’s Finance and Resources Committee agreed to the last-minute request shoehorned into a revenue budget update on Wednesday, November 20.
The centre’s director Mike Benson is hopeful the £50,000 will not be needed and described the public’s support since the devastating fire three years ago as “incredibly humbling”.
In 2021 a fire destroyed the recreated Iron Age house on the shore of Loch Tay. The blaze hastened the need for the £12 million new centre across the water at Dalerb. While work on the development is still under way, the museum opened to the public in its new site on April 1.
Scottish Crannog Centre director Mike Benson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the council’s financial support this week provided “comfort”.
Mr Benson said: “I think for an organisation that’s had a fire just under three years ago, there will be a few bumps along the road which we’ve had. It just gives us that bit of comfort and security.
“It’s been incredibly humbling all the support we’ve had. As far as this funding goes, the ambition is we don’t need to use it; it’s just there should we need it.”
Facing a projected overspend on its 2024/25 General Fund Management
Budget of £885,000, councillors were asked to agree to allocate £50,000 from cash-strapped PKC’s unearmarked reserves to help provide the Scottish Crannog Centre with “a level of confidence”.
Council leader Grant Laing said: “The council has been approached by the Scottish Crannog Centre. They’re experiencing cashflow challenges due to factors beyond their control.
“I’ve asked officers to continue working with the Crannog board to get more of an understanding of these challenges.”
He assured councillors money will “only be paid if required”.
PKC’s chief executive Thomas Glen told councillors a larger sum of money had been requested.
Mr Glen said: “The approach was made for a sum that is larger than what we put in front of you today.
“We have engaged with Crannog, we have engaged with other funders and we also know the reasons for the cashflow issues are ongoing discussions with a number of external parties to the Crannog. That’s why their cashflow position is subject to potential change. We’ve sought to minimise the amount of underwriting we have brought forward.”
Independent councillor Colin Stewart questioned if money was eventually taken, would it be paid back to the council. He was told it would not be a loan.
PKC’s chief financial officer Scott Walker explained: “It’s an underwriting that may turn into a grant to keep them going over the short term.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Peter Barrett – who happens to have a lifetime membership of the Scottish Crannog Centre – was “slightly wrong-footed” by the last-minute financial request to the council. He shared how he had spent the previous day with litterpicking volunteers, sat afterwards with woolly hats and overcoats in a “dark, unheated Portakabin clearly trying to economise on their energy bill”.
Cllr Barrett said: “I think there are a lot of really good causes out there who are struggling to make ends meet and the ad-hoc fashion of dealing with this is not one I really agree with. If we’d known about this sooner, we might have been able to think it through better.”
Provost Xander McDade – who represents the Highland Perthshire ward where the Scottish Crannog Centre is located – was fully supportive.
The Independent councillor said: “This is not just a local organisation but a national heritage centre for something we are lucky and fortunate to have here in Perth and Kinross.
“It does a lot around supporting asylum seekers and rehabilitation of former prisoners etc so they are doing a lot of good work.”