Museum pieces must move 'as a matter of urgency'

Elmbridge Museum, based at the Elmbridge Civic Centre, is in need of new storage space quickly, councillors have said

A museum is facing a race against time to move 43,000 objects into a new storage site to protect its national accreditation, Surrey councillors have said.

Part of Elmbridge Museum's collection could be urgently relocated to Weybridge, costing at least £132,000, to prevent losing its accreditation with Arts Council England, the officers have said in a report.

The proposed move comes after the museum's current storage facility at Elmgrove Hall in Walton-on-Thames was declared "unfit for purpose" and in "poor condition" by Elmbridge Borough Council.

Councillors will decide whether to approve the plans at a cabinet meeting on Monday.

When it was last assessed for accreditation, the issue of poor storage facilities was flagged as a key area for improvement.

The next assessment is expected later this year or in 2026.

The report said: "Given the proximity to the next scheduled Arts Council accreditation assessment, it is proposed that the museum collection located at Elmgrove be moved... as a matter of urgency."

The report said that, if the museum were to lose accreditation, it would "suffer significant reputational damage, will find it harder to recruit staff, and will also be ineligible for many streams of funding."

It added that, if the museum ever wished to borrow items from other institutions for displays, this would become impossible without accreditation, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Between June 2022 and September 2024 various options were explored, according to a council report, but no feasible sites have been yet been identified.

Options under consideration include the Luxfords storage facility, in Weybridge.

This currently houses a significant part of the museum collection and additional space is available but conversion works would be needed, according to a report.

The Luxfords site is also not publicly accessible - prompting the council to explore a longer-term solution in partnership with Brooklands Museum.

Discussions are under way to relocate the full collection to Brooklands' Acoustics Building, which would be converted into a shared facility.

The project could take up to three years.

The council plans to commission a feasibility study later this year to develop detailed proposals, costings, and governance options for the partnership.