THE future of a historic house in Romsey has been secured after civic chiefs voted to give temporary funding aid.
Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) agreed to proposals to financially support King John’s House, in Church Street, at cabinet on Wednesday, November 20.
The discussion came as the museum enters its final year of revenue grant support from the council. This meant that financial backing for King John’s House would have ended on March 31 next year unless further funding was approved.
The cabinet voted to approve an initial year's funding for 2025/26, with any future revenue cost support being agreed on a year-by-year basis until March 2028. This was the recommended option in a report written by officers, with the other options being to end the funding for the house or to provide funding until March 2028.
Speaking at Cabinet, Cllr Nick Adams-King said that he believed that going with the officer's recommendation was “the right way forward”.
He continued: “I think we should extend out thanks to the former trustees of King John's House, many of whom have been around for a while indeed. But now is the time to take things forward. Not least because the regeneration of the town centre gives us new opportunities for Romsey, and if we are to make a proper tourist offer then we need to link King John's House to (Romsey) Abbey and the main points of interest in the town.”
The Cabinet voted unanimously to approve the officer's recommendation.
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Speaking to the Advertiser prior to the Cabinet meeting, Cllr John Parker, who is also a chair of trustees for King John’s House, said that the house has been planning to become more self-sustaining for some time, and that he was hoping that the cabinet selects the officer’s recommendation to continue funding for next year and then do annual reviews.
He told the Advertiser: “What we are hoping to is move away from being reliant on funding from the borough council. But we realise that will take some time to achieve, so we are looking for continued support from Test Valley while we make those changes.”
He continued: “I would hope that three options put forward by the officers are the standard approach – you’ve always got to put three options forward. There’s one recommended option and two others just to make up to the three options, so I hope that the recommended option is the one that goes forward.
“Cutting off our funding completely would mean that we would really have to reconsider the whole viability of the charity as for if we could continue operating at all, in which case the house would have to close and I don’t know what would happen at that point.”
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