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Silverstone experience receives £250k National Lottery support to help with impact of COVID-19

Silverstone experience receives £250k National Lottery support to help with impact of COVID-19

The Silverstone Experience has received £250k from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to ensure it is able to remain open during the winter and continue its mission of preserving the heritage of British motor racing and inspiring the next generation of engineers.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown began, The Silverstone Experience has been forced to close for 17 weeks, including the key Easter and spring period. A comprehensive programme of measures to make the venue COVID-secure has been put in place at considerable cost to allow re-opening on 20 July. These measures have received universal praise from the 20,000 visitors who have since come to museum. Opening days have now been reduced to Thursday-Sunday, 10:00-17:00 during term time, and seven days a week in holidays, until March 2021.

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.

The funding, made possible by National Lottery players, was awarded through The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s 'Heritage Emergency Fund'. A total of £50million was made available to provide emergency funding for those most in need across the heritage sector. The UK-wide fund aimed to address both immediate emergency actions and help organisations to start thinking about recovery.

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. 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.

Thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised every week for good causes, including heritage of local and national importance. By playing The National Lottery, people up and down the country are making an amazing contribution to the nationwide-response to combatting the impact of COVID-19 on local communities across the UK.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Emergency Fund is now closed for applications. To find out more about how The National Heritage Emergency Fund is supporting the sector at this time please visit: www.heritagefund.org.uk/responding-coronavirus-covid-19

To find out more about the National Lottery Good Causes, visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/coronavirus-pandemic-response


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