Northamptonshire's Silverstone experience receives £250k to stay open in winter following costly Covid-19 measures

The museum has received a share of £50m set up to help the UK's heritage sector stay afloat.
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Northamptonshire's Silverstone Experience has been handed a £250,000 grant to help it stay open in the winter despite the cost of setting up Covid-19 measures.

The museum of dedicated to the history of British motor racing was forced to close for 17 weeks during the lockdown, and was faced with a high costs to introduce Covid-secure measures so it could return in July.

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Now, the museum has been handed a shared of £50m of emergency funding by the National Lottery Heritage Fund set up to help the UK's heritage sector stay afloat despite the costs of Covid-secure measures.

Sally Reynolds, CEO of The Silverstone Experience, said: “Thanks to the National Lottery and its players we have been able to put in place very strong COVID safety measures, for which we’ve had a fantastic response from our customers. We missed the key spring and early summer period during lockdown and can still only admit a limited number of visitors each day, therefore this grant is essential in helping us to stay open during the winter.

“In order to ensure our continued opening, we have made the necessary decision to reduce our opening days from seven to four days a week during school term time. We will be open for seven days a week during school holidays, in order to help achieve our mission of engaging minds and inspiring the next generation of engineers. We’re grateful that The National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting us at this crucial time – it’s a lifeline to us and others who are passionate about sustaining heritage for the benefit of all.”

Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic regeneration and benefiting our personal wellbeing. All of these things are going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis.

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“Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our support to organisations such as The Silverstone Experience during this uncertain time.”

Similar to The Silverstone Experience, other charities and organisations across the UK that have been affected by the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus outbreak are being given access to a comprehensive package of support of up to £600 million of repurposed money from The National Lottery. This money is supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and span the arts, community, charity, heritage, education, environment and sports sectors.

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