Damp proves issue for newly relocated Chatteris Museum

The new home of a town’s museum is proving problematic because of damp issues councillors have heard.

Chatteris town councillors heard at their monthly meeting on Tuesday that the building the council owns in Park Street is “running with damp”.

As a result, it is currently “not suitable” for the museum’s many artefacts.

The museum relocated from its previous home in the council’s office building in Church Lane earlier this year.

The move to the former Barclays Bank building in Park Street was partly funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and also by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

Work had been carried out to improve the building but town clerk Joanna Melton explained Fenland District Council’s conservation officer had refused to allow them to install a damp-proof course.

She said the problem now is that “some walls are dripping”. The problem was blamed on rising damp.

Cllr Pete Murphy said some of the rooms are so bad the museum is unable to put anything in them, and Mrs Melton admitted that the office that was used as a temporary home for the town council while its own building was renovated in Church Lane also had damp.

Mrs Melton said investigations were needed to discover the cause of the problem and then to go back to Fenland’s conservation officer and try to persuade them to allow necessary work, including the possibility of a damp proof course being carried out.

She said the council still had money in the pot from the Growing Fenland Project – which included the museum move – and that cash could be used to do what was necessary.

Councillors agreed that without the work the building was not fit for purpose and that investigations should be carried out before approaching the conservation officer again.

Mrs Melton said a damp proof expert had previously come up with three different options for a damp proof course which had been rejected but she said they could be put forward again with the hope one would find favour.

Meanwhile there was positive news on the other part of the town’s Growing Fenland Project which was the creation of two flats in the Church Lane building.

Mrs Melton said the second tenant has now moved in and so income was being generated for the council from both the flats.

She also said that a number of organisations were already making use of the community room including Citizens Advice Bureau and Spec Savers who have been offering free hearing tests.

MarketPlace was now about to start using the facility and Mrs Melton said things were therefore going well.