Urgent maintenance work, the provision of IT kit for staff working from home and creation of visitor resources can now be carried out by Truro Cathedral thanks to a grant.

The cathedral has been awarded £90,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help address the impact of Covid-19.

The funding will be used to cover various costs incurred across the cathedral, from the creation of visitor resources for reopening and urgent maintenance work on the building, to changes in IT to enable home-working, support for staff costs during lockdown and provision of additional volunteer training.

Sean O’Neill, chief operating officer, said, “As a self-funded organisation, Covid-19 continues to have a significant financial impact on Truro Cathedral and we are very grateful for the support provided by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

"A long, challenging road lies ahead but the team continues to work tirelessly to find creative ways to adapt to the shifting environment and ensure that staff, volunteers, visitors and worshippers are safe and the cathedral is able to continue to provide pastoral, spiritual and practical support to its communities.

"We are passionate about doing everything possible to sustain the heritage of the cathedral for the benefit of all and we’re grateful that The National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting us at this crucial time.”

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The funding was awarded through The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Emergency Fund. £50million was made available to provide emergency funding for those most in need across the heritage sector.

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 benefitting 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 Truro Cathedral during this uncertain time.”