Cathedral sets £7m target to secure future

12:51pm Friday 27th June 2008

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DURHAM Cathedral has launched a £7m fundraising drive.

Michael Sadgrove, the Dean of Durham, said a five-year development plan unveiled on Tuesday will lead to the cathedral playing a bigger role in the city, the region and the country.

He said: "We have this huge building to maintain and we can afford to maintain the work at the present level.

"But there are areas where we want to expand our work. We're asking: What can the cathedral give the region?'."

The plan proposes spending £7m over the next five years, on top of the £3m-a-year it costs to run the cathedral and its current activities.

Fundraising targets will include cathedral visitors, North-East residents, charitable organisations and businesses.

But there are no plans to charge a cathedral admission fee.

New projects will include a multimillion pound visitors' centre for Durham Castle and Cathedral and work to open up the banks of the River Wear owned by the cathedral, with new footpaths and trees. But the Dean is also keen to expand the cathedral's community work, reaching out to young people, prisoners and minority ethnic communities.

He said: "Durham Cathedral has been a familiar and much-loved icon of North-East England for more than 900 years.

"Although the world has changed vastly since then, the cathedral still has much to contribute to public life through its matchless heritage, its welcome to visitors, its programme of arts, musical and cultural activities, its education opportunities for children and young people, and of course its spirituality and daily rhythm of prayer and worship."

The development plan, the first ever produced by the cathedral, has been more than five years in the planning.

Prof John Anstee, chairman of the cathedral's development steering committee, said: "It is about enhancing the activities of the cathedral so we can benefit the local community and the regional community more effectively than we have been able to in the past.

"We want the region to know that Durham Cathedral, this wonderful iconic building and place of worship, is somewhere they are welcome and can engage better than perhaps has been possible in the past."

For more information about the development programme, call Gaye Kirby on 0191-386-4266.