Lancaster City Museums see drastic cuts to opening days and hours

From October 1, Lancaster City Museum and King’s own Royal Regimental Museum, the Maritime and the Cottage museums will all see a fall in the number of days they operate – including some reduction in current hours on the days they do open.

The city council says it has revised the opening hours at its museums to help meet the financial challenges it faces while ‘continuing to protect and steward local heritage’.

It has not said how the reduced hours will affect staff at the museums.

The new opening hours are as follows:

• Lancaster City Museum & King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum will open to the public from 10.30am-4pm, five days per week (Friday to Tuesday). It currently opens six days a week from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm.

• Maritime Museum will open to the public noon to 4pm, four days per week (Friday to Monday). It currently opens 10am-4pm seven days a week.

• The Cottage Museum will open to the public 1pm-4pm, Saturdays only from April to September. This is a reduction of six days per week.

Along with many other local authorities, the city council says it is battling against unprecedented pressures caused by a perfect storm of rising costs and inflation, increasing demand for services and below-inflation Government funding.

Immediate savings of £2.4million were agreed at Full Council in February to balance the books.

These savings are in the process of being implemented and from October 1 will include the changes to opening times at the three museums the city council owns and operates in Lancaster.

Morecambe and Lancaster Visitor Information Centres closed just over a week ago as part of the cuts.

The council also announced plans to shut The Platform entertainment venue on Morecambe promenade earlier this year but backtracked on closing it down after after the public piled on the pressure to keep it open.

The Platform has now been given a reprieve until April 2024 with the council vowing it will look for a new model of operating after this date to ensure its long term sustainable future.

A spokesman said: "While the council’s own perilous financial situation means it is having to make savings from its own budget, it is looking to exploit external funding opportunities to make improvements to the museums.”

Applications have been submitted to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to improve the visitor experience and offer at the City and Maritime Museums – with better entrance areas, retail facilities and a digital display to increase accessibility at the City Museum.

Coun Catherine Potter, cabinet member with responsibility for the visitor economy, community wealth building and culture, said: “As with all the changes being made to the council’s services, this is a step we have taken with great reluctance but one that was necessary.

“The financial challenges being faced by local government are well documented and just recently we have seen a number of councils signalling that they are effectively bankrupt.

“Our own financial issues are not quite as severe because of the decisive action that was taken back in February to balance the books, but this did mean having to find savings of £2.4million.

“Having said that, the district’s heritage is a source of great local pride for residents and we wanted to find a solution that would maintain and operate our outstanding museums, while reducing our significant financial support for the service.

“By making these changes to the opening hours we have taken care to balance the need to make savings while at the same time ensuring the museums are open on the most popular days for visitors.”

A spokesperson added: “The City Museums are run by a dedicated, knowledgeable and enthusiastic team who will continue to develop the work of the service. Over the summer they welcomed many families to their popular holiday activities and have been working hard to increase income to support the work of the museums.”

The team is also working with a number of other local organisations such as Escape2Make, the Dukes, Lancaster Black History Group and the School of Engineering at Lancaster University to make the museums as accessible as possible to everyone.