Opposition councillors have expressed “grave concerns” about a £470,000 bailout of Aerospace Bristol. The rescue package from South Gloucestershire Council includes the local authority writing off up to £315,900 of a 10-year loan to the museum where visitors can climb aboard the last Concorde to fly, along with a £154,000 grant over the next four years to restore the number of school trips.
It was included in the Conservative-run council’s annual budget at the 11th hour following additional money from the Government. But Lib Dem Cllr Maggie Tyrrell, co-chair of the authority’s scrutiny commission, said the money for the Bristol Aerospace Collection Trust (BACT), the charity that runs the attraction in Patchway, could have been better spent saving services such as buses.
The proposals were defended by Tory council leader Cllr Toby Savage who said it was vital to support the museum, which is struggling to repay the loan in the wake of the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and rising interest rates. Cllr Tyrrell said: “I have grave concerns about the last-minute announcement that over £300,000 will be spent writing off loans to the BACT.
Read more: Aerospace Bristol set for £470K council rescue package after financial struggle
“While it is an important local visitor attraction, what other options have been explored to keep it afloat? Could this money have been used to save bus services or support our residents during the cost of living crisis?”
She told full council on Wednesday, February 15, where the 2023/24 budget was approved with some Lib Dems voting against and others abstaining, that the plans were announced too late for them to be properly scrutinised. The proposed bailout was only published on the day of the cabinet meeting five days earlier, where the authority’s annual spending programme was agreed ahead of the vote at full council.
Cllr Tyrrell said: “The Aerospace museum is no doubt a very worthy cause but it’s a substantial amount of money for something that isn’t perhaps top of the agenda when you look at some of the severe cuts being made.” Cllr Savage replied at full council: “I was disappointed that Cllr Tyrrell, perhaps on behalf of the Liberal Democrat group, was sceptical about our investment in Aerospace Bristol.
“We are very proud of our investment as a Conservative group in Aerospace Bristol. It’s very important that we support a museum that is struggling financially because of very well-known reasons, and to roll out additional funding support for school visits.”
A report to the meeting said the new loan agreement, which will see interest and capital repayments written off, aimed to “avoid the risk of insolvency”. It said the museum had “fundamentally reviewed its operating structure” over the past few months and that while visitor numbers were growing and the core business remained financially viable, “surpluses are likely to be insufficient over the coming years to cover the annual loan repayments and rapidly rising interest charges”.
The report said school visits had not returned to pre-pandemic levels because of the higher costs of travel, a trend which was “not anticipated to reverse in the near time”.
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