Struggling cathedral might consider visitor fee

A city cathedral said it might have to start charging visitors to keep it running, as it faces the prospect of raising £300,000 by the end of March.

Peterborough Cathedral said it was considering drastic steps, including reducing its opening days and cutting down on the number of community programmes it hosts, to make itself financially viable.

The historic venue said it was "facing a critical challenge" and needed to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds to keep its doors open seven days a week for prayer and reflection.

Its Dean, the Very Reverend Chris Dalliston, said: "The challenge is costs are rising faster than the money we can generate."

It costs about £2m to run the cathedral building each year. It relies on commercial activities, public donations, and events and exhibitions to manage its finances, while a Church of England grant makes up 15% of its income.

It has launched an urgent fundraiser to help maintain worship and musical programmes, continue educational initiatives and carry out essential repairs to protect the "irreplaceable landmark", the cathedral said.

Mr Dalliston said: "We worked hard to develop a really exciting and entrepreneurial, welcoming cathedral. The challenge is costs rising faster than the money we can generate. Covid, cost of living crisis and rising costs of utilities is a huge challenge.

"The staff and all the people we employ - like any other business - it costs money and we have to find the means to meet those challenges.

"The grant we get from the Church of England is about 15% of our income, so it leaves us with quite a big hole. We are negotiating with them and would love to see a little bit more.

"There are all the options on the table. Certainly closing the cathedral for at least one or maybe more days, and whether we can continue to make it free as we have really longed to do, are challenges we face.

"And even maybe stopping some of the community work we do are the consequences of not being able to meet the demand."

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