Campaign gets under way to save historic Lancaster City Museum from closing to public four days a week

City councillors will be challenged next week to find the money to avoid closing the museum doors to the public four days a week as part of massive savings of £300,000 a year, representing 40% of the budget.

Spearheading the fight are the Friends of Lancaster City Museum, who were formed 20 years ago to combat a previous threat to the museum.

“Lancaster correctly claims to be one of England’s heritage cities,” said Friends’ chairman Chris Tinmouth.

"What message is sent out by having such important cultural resources so severely cut?”

If the plans go through at Budget Council on Wednesday (February 22), museum opening hours will be reduced from six days a week to three from October 1.

They will herald a “fundamental review” of the museum service, councillors have been told.

Threats to the City Museum, as well as the Regimental, Maritime and Cottage Museums, sit alongside the proposed closure of the popular Visitor Information Centres at The Storey in Lancaster and The Platform in Morecambe.

The separate Platform entertainment venue had also been earmarked for closure in October but has won a stay of execution after council money was found from another source.

The City Museum in Market Square houses key treasures from the pre-historic era to the present day including archaeological and art collections as well as gifts. A Grade 2-star listed building, it opened as the original Town Hall in the 1780s.

“It is a travesty of justice that the council should even consider reducing access to one of its flagship heritage institutions, especially during its centenary year,” said Dr Tinmouth, who is expected to address the council when it meets at Morecambe Town Hall next Wednesday at 6pm.

He believes it would be wrong for local taxpayers and visitors to have the opportunity to see collections of national and international significance curtailed to three days a week.

“The Friends have a duty to defend the museum,” he said.

The Friends have launched a petition to keep Lancaster City Museum open six days a week which you can sign at https://chng.it/ZrWxWqxJ