Reduced opening hours of Lancaster museums set to come into force

Monday, 18 September 2023 15:42

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

Reduced opening hours of museums in Lancaster will come into force from October 1.

The changes to opening hours of the City Museum and King's Own Royal Regiment Museum, Maritime Museum and Cottage Museum have come about due to Lancaster City Council budget cuts.

They are as follows:

Lancaster City Museum & King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum will open to the public from 10.30am to 4pm, five days per week (Friday to Tuesday). This is a reduction of one day a week.

Lancaster Maritime Museum will open to the public from noon to 4pm, 4 days per week (Friday to Monday). This is a reduction of three days per week.

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

Lancaster City Council said it has cut the opening hours at its museums "to help meet the financial challenges it faces while continuing to protect and steward local heritage".

The city council has said that cuts are necessary to balance the books after "spiralling inflation and years of government under-funding" made worse by the current cost of living crisis and rise in energy prices.

They said that while their "perilous financial situation means the council 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.

“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," Councillor Catherine Potter (pictured below), cabinet member with responsibility for the visitor economy, community wealth building and culture.

“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 what 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.”

The City Museums are 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 in order to make the museums as accessible as possible to everyone, said the council.

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