AN OKEHAMPTON museum is celebrating the news that it is £600 better off after West Devon Borough Council reversed a decision to withdraw financial support.

The Museum of Dartmoor Life has been told that it will not have to pay £600 towards business rates each year, after appealing against the borough council’s decision to start charging them.

Currently heritage organisations, as charities, get 80% rate relief, with the remaining 20% at the discretion of the local authority. The borough council used to meet this cost in full but had for the first time this year asked museums to pay 10% themselves.

Museum manager Keri Quertier said: ‘We are very pleased at the borough council’s decision. We rely almost entirely on admission fees and a small grant we get from Okehampton Town Council, which we are very grateful for, but every penny we can possibly save makes a big difference. We have gone from paying no business rates to having to pay £600 this year.

‘We put in an official appeal against the decision, so it is great that that has been well received by the borough council. Our main argument was that in Okehampton we are also the tourist information point which helps all the businesses in this part of Dartmoor and Okehampton, as the borough council stopped providing a tourist information service a few years ago. We are really helping to keep the money in the local community which is why we felt particularly aggrieved when they withdrew it. We are grateful to them for restoring the grant.’

The museum has already paid the £600 for the current financial year, but will now be having this money refunded by the borough council.

Ms Quertier said it was welcome news, particularly as the museum was currently having to pay to have its lift repaired, and had been worried about having to cut back on its workshops for children and dementia-friendly workshops.

Okehampton borough councillor the Rev Mike Davies, who supported the museum’s appeal, said: ‘I’m really pleased to hear about this decision. It will make a big difference to the museum.’

Tavistock Museum has also had its full 20 per cent discretionary grant for the financial year 2017-2018 after appealing to the borough council. Without this the museum, a free-entry attraction run entirely by volunteers, would have had to pay this year nearly £600 in rates on its premises at Court Gate, Tavistock.

Roderick Martin, manager of the museum, said: ‘This is a very welcome outcome as our museum has to be run within a very tight budget. It was a bit upsetting earlier this year to find our grant had been reduced and some of our income would be needed to pay rates especially as our museum makes a very positive contribution to the local economy and promotes local tourism. Every day our stewards provide information to visitors and hand out tourism leaflets.

‘Hopefully, restoration of the full grant to us this year by West Devon Borough Council will prove a landmark decision and serve as a future policy guide to district councils throughout Devon. Museums and heritage attractions not only conserve our local heritage but are now often in the front line of local tourism, providing an invaluable stand-in tourist information service at a time when local authorities can no longer afford to do so.’

He said the museum was grateful to Tavistock WDBC councillors Debo Sellis and Jeff Moody for their help in getting the grant restored, and to Tavistock MP Geoffrey Cox for his interest and his support.

West Devon Borough Council leader Philip Sanders said: ‘The additional 20 per cent relief on business rates is something that is at the discretion of the individual local authority.

‘It was deemed that the two museums were not eligible for the full rebate.

‘However, following an appeal by the organisations and the presentation to us of additional material we have responded positively to the appeal and restored the rebate for this year.’