A HERITAGE initiative run by a Chelmsford museum has been awarded £272,100 by the Arts Council England.

The heritage partnership initiative which is led by Epping Forest District Council’s Museum, Heritage and Culture Service, Lowewood Museum in Broxbourne and Chelmsford City Council’s Museum Service, Oaklands Park, Chelmsford has been awarded the cash following a competitive bid.

The group applied to the Arts Council England’s Museums Resilience Fund, part of their strategic funding programme, which is used to help museums become more sustainable and resilient to the pressures facing museums.

The three museums which are free to enter, are all undertaking exciting developments at the moment which this project will support into the future.

The No Borders project is a ground breaking partnership of the three museums: Epping Forest District, Chelmsford and Broxbourne and It aims to develop sustainable, inspiring services drawing upon the recommendations produced for Epping Forest District Museum as part of an earlier piece of work funded by Arts Council England.

The No Borders project will take place between October 2016 and March 2018.

The funding will enable the partnership museums to develop new approaches to support funding for projects, development projects and day to day activities, by bringing in expertise on fundraising, commercial activities in retail, catering, services and venue hire and to undertake a number of funded transformational improvements across all these areas of work.

The museums will also establish new charitable development foundations to fundraise in support of the work of the museums, with the aim of bringing in funding not normally available to local authority museums and will be established and guided by an experienced fundraiser.

A third strand of the project will be to undertake projects with groups and individuals who don’t currently access the museums, to build our audiences and encourage people of all ages and abilities to get involved with the museum, as visitors, supporters, volunteers and future curators.

Julia Jeapes councillor responsible for leisure said this is fantastic news.

She added: "Chelmsford Museum is a great place to find out about the varied heritage of the local area and this funding will enable us to transform the oldest parts of the site.

"The council has already completed some fantastic work that, combined with this project, will realise impressive benefits for the collections and the visitors to this much-loved museum.

"Seven years ago the council invested nearly £5m in the new museum extension, but we have many more ideas and aspirations which this funding will help support.”