A message from our Chair, Neil Wilkinson
I need share with you some very disappointing news about funding for the Hexham Community Partnership.
Hexham Town Council has been a core funder of the partnership since its inception nearly 20 years ago.
Each year, we submit a funding bid, outlining our plans and proposals for the coming year(s) and we followed this process again last autumn.
Board members were called to a meeting with the town council last week (23 January), where town councillors advised us that from April 2026 the council will no longer be providing any funding to the partnership.
This has obviously come as a shock, particularly the timing and extremely short timescale in which we have to work to agree our plans going forward.
The town council’s support represents around 80% of our core funding, and while we have been actively working towards more financial independence through grant applications and new sources of income, this announcement gives us very little time to react and plan.
The partnership owns Visit Hexham and the Forum Cinema, each central to the town’s success. We lead popular events such as Spook Night, Hexham Christmas Market, Sankta Lucia, Hexham Heritage Tours, Hidden Gardens, and Father Christmas at the Old Gaol. Last year, we worked once more with the town council on the Christmas Lights event.
We work year-round with Hexham’s cultural venues, hospitality businesses and traders to make things work better and to promote the town. We collaborate with regional partners such as the county council, Visit Northumberland, North East Screen, Northumberland National Park and Hadrian’s Wall Partnership.
Our team manages the No 28 Community House. We support hundreds of community events online through the HCP website and social media and put substantial time in face to face on events such as Hexham Fireworks and the Christmas windows trail.
All of this and more is now at risk.
We have not made any decisions about the future yet, and the board and staff team are working as quickly as possible to review our finances, our assets and strengths, our most sustainable areas of work and options for future organisational models. We have to be honest, however, that a managed and responsible winding down of the partnership is one possible outcome.
Our incredibly hard-working committed staff are understandably shocked and concerned by this news, and we will be working closely with and supporting them throughout this process. They have been advised that, as a last resort, we may need to begin a formal redundancy process.
The partnership’s understanding is that the funding decision arises from the town council’s financial constraints and the need to refocus its spending priorities. We do not regard it as a reflection on the quality or dedication of our team, whose work is highly valued across the town and wider area.
We appreciate that the town council has had to make some challenging funding decisions and their concerns about being our sole core funder. However, our funding application for 2026 – 2029 clearly set out a long term move towards financial independence. This included growing income from events, the visitor economy and new grants from the North East Combined Authority, Awards for All, Visit Northumberland and other cultural or tourism sector funds.
We very much welcome your ideas, support and involvement as we review our future options. You can get in touch using the Contact Us page. In particular, we are interested in potential partnerships, new funding leads, business support offers, and opportunities to increase income from the visitor economy.
Best regards
Neil Wilkinson
Chair of Hexham Community Partnership