INTRODUCTION

  1.  The Council of Museums in Wales (CMW) is pleased to have the opportunity to submit evidence to the Committee's inquiry into the Heritage Lottery Fund.

  CMW is a membership body sponsored by the Welsh Office with duties to assits and advise non-national museums in Wales. As such, CMW represents the interests of some 80 registered museums in both the local authority and independent sectors in Wales. CMW works closely with the Museums & Galleries Commission and the other nine regional area museum councils to develop standards and promote good practice in all aspects of museum service provision.

  2.  CMW provides Initial Expert Advice to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) when requested on applications with museum implications from Wales. To date we have provided 49 assessments. CMW also acts as monitor of museum related projects and we are currently monitoring four projects. HLF regularly consults CMW on policy issues concerning museums and galleries in general and on Welsh matters in particular.

  The CMW provides advice to its member museums on the preparation of applications to HLF and gives information on HLF policy, selection criteria and procedures.

HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND

  3.  The HLF has had enormous impact on funding for museum developments over the last three years. The £450 million awarded to museum projects in the UK has brought great benefits in terms of both public access and the future preservation of the nation's material heritage. The £3.5 million spent on museums and galleries in Wales has had significant local impact. Several new museums are opening, such as the Holyhead Maritime Museum and the Egypt Centre, Swansea, which would have been unthinkable without Heritage Lottery funding. In other places existing museums have been enabled to undertake much needed developments, for example Wrexham Museum's Satellite Centre and Highgate, Lloyd George's Boyhood Home which will secure heritage assets for the future and offer visitors much better all round experience. These and other developments have greatly enriched the museum scene in Wales. HLF activity however to date has only begun to scratch the surface of Welsh museum needs for capital investments. It is anticipated that HLF funding will continue to play a pivotal role in improving Welsh museums in the future.

  4.  In terms of regional equity Wales has received less money overall than might have been anticipated. Welsh museums and galleries have not faired particularly well. The reasons for this are not clear cut. Wales has few large Local Authority museum services and only one national museum service. As a result there have been fewer large scale bids coming forward than elsewhere and some of these have not been successful. The failure of certain "flagship" applications has cooled enthusiasm to commit resources to bid development and has made potential applicants cautious. In some Local Authorities, Local Government Reorganisation caused a pause in forward planning which has resulted in an initial delay in some museum services developing proposals. Our information indicates that some Local Authorities have found difficulty in identifying matching funding and others are reluctant to make commitments which have revenue funding implications.

  5.  We understand that the HLF is proactively addressing regional equity issues from its own perspective.

  We look forward to working with the Welsh team and the new Committee, who will know the Welsh situation, to improve these matters. The new powers to support revenue funding and the emphasis on smaller schemes should assist in this respect.

  6.  CMW warmly welcomes the setting up of regional teams. We are developing good working relationships with the Wales and South West Team members. However the area covered by this team is very large and culturally and historically diverse. Whilst we appreciate the need for administrative efficiencies, we would naturally prefer to see a team which works specifically on Wales and is in a position to acquire a close working knowledge of Wales and its heritage.

  7.  CMW warmly welcomes the setting up of a Welsh Committee with powers to award grants of up to £375,000 on projects up to a total value of £500,000 and which will advise Trustees on larger projects. This move towards locally made decision making will go a long way towards answering concerns that have been voiced about the apparent remoteness of the HLF and will provide stronger local representation and bring greater local knowledge to bear on decision making.

  8.  The Arts Council of Wales and The Sports Council of Wales have Lottery distribution powers. The National Lottery Charities Board also has a Welsh regional office fully supported by its own directorate and committee with distribution powers. Whilst the setting up of a Welsh Committee supported by a team of officers in London is a great step forward, in our view it is not a substitute for setting up a secretariat in Wales to fully serve the needs of Welsh applicants and to support the Welsh Committee.

  9.1.  It is to be hoped that the Welsh Committee will be given an appropriate allocation of funds to distribute in Wales. Such a system could prove of benefit by increasing the total amount of money distributed within Wales. Indeed a regional allocation would assist the HLF manage demand and it would help at local planning levels. We understand that the Regional Arts Boards of England are given an indication by the Arts Lottery Board of regional allocations and this puts them in a better position to plan and advise their members. Such information would assist CMW in advising our members in terms of forward planning and bid development.

  9.2  In the past it was said that the disadvantage of a Wales based distribution system with fixed financial limits was that the very largest multi-million pound schemes would not be affordable. However the proposed Home Country Committee system, whereby exceptionally large projects above an agreed limit will be referred back up to the HLF parent body will accommodate this concern.

  10.  We understand that HLF intends to deliver its Strategic Plan to the Secretary of State in the Spring of 1999. We look forward to being actively involved and to contributing information on an assessment of needs of the local authority and independent museums in Wales. We hope HLF will work very closely with the relevant agencies in developing its strategies and will henceforth share the policy documents against which its decisions are made. As HLF is the wealthiest body funding heritage developments in Wales it is in a very influential position. There is therefore a need for HLF strategy to harmonise with the strategy of other publicly funded bodies in Wales whose longer acquaintance and more detailed knowledge of their respective sectors will be of great benefit to HLF.

  11.  If significant policy changes are introduced again it would be helpful to have a longer transitional period to allow for museums to forward plan effectively against any new guidelines.

  12.  The lead time on developing museum proposals can be lengthy and expensive. Our members in both the Local Authority and independent museum sectors have expressed this as a significant barrier to making applications. The two tier application system will be an improvement in this respect. An extension of this procedure to cover lower value projects would save applicants and HLF's time and resources and, in our view, should encourage further applications from new sources.

June 1998