West Dorset MP Chris Loder is encouraging museums, galleries, libraries and cultural venues across West Dorset to bid for £16.9 million in new funding from the Museum Estate and Development Fund to level up access to culture in our communities.

The cash boost will help museums to conduct maintenance work to improve building infrastructure for the benefit of visitors, staff and their collection - preserving for all to enjoy.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is contributing the extra funding for the second round of the Museum Estate and Development Fund following Chris Loder's invitation to Dorset last year to the tourism minister in order to get more for West Dorset.

Museums can now enter round two and bid for grants of between £50,000 and £5 million. Museums and galleries benefitting from the fund's investments have improved access for communities to their local history. Funding awarded has helped to complete structural work, prevent flooding, and increase public access, so that more people can visit their collections and enjoy our national heritage.

Mr Loder said: "West Dorset has a rich heritage showcased in our local museums, galleries and libraries, of which we can all be proud. 

"I welcomed the tourism minister to West Dorset last year to see for himself the rich contributions made by our local museums to our national story.

"The Government's extra £16.9 million in funding from the Museum Estate and Development Fund will protect and widen access to the historic collections in our museums and galleries. I urge museums and cultural venues across West Dorset to apply."