City looks at ways to preserve conservation group's funding

Published on Tuesday 5 August 2008 10:34

NEW methods of providing funding for conservation charity Edinburgh World Heritage are to be investigated by the council.

Changes to the council's accountancy practices have meant that it is no longer able to provide EWH with the same level of funding as in previous years, around 617,000 per annum.

Adam Wilkinson, director of EWH, has written to the council asking it to reconsider the changes, which will see the local authority cut grant funding by around 500,000.

In a report to the council's planning committee, Dave Anderson, the council's director of city development, said there were a number of options which the council should explore for funding.

And he stressed the council's commitment to finding funds for EWH.

"The funding of EWH is affected as a result of changes to accounting procedures that imply all funding to EWH must become revenue funding," he said. "This puts pressure on already restricted revenue budgets."

He added that the council would be best to re-examine the funding issue after an ongoing assessment of the management of world heritage sites undertaken by EWH.