Bristol Museum funding cuts criticised by charity

The Bristol Museum and Art Gallery welcomed a surprise Banksy exhibition in 2009

Plans to cut a city council's spending on its museums will cause huge damage to their "ability to function", a charity has claimed.

Bristol City Council's next budget includes a proposed £436,000 cut for museum and archive funding.

The Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives said museums could play a huge part in attracting people back to the city post-lockdown.

The council said no final decisions had been made.

It said avoiding cuts to frontline services required savings to the culture service in line with other departments.

The Friends group said despite mayor Marvin Rees insisting it was a "no frontline cuts budget", the impact for the cultural service will be enormous across the city's seven visitor sites, which are all currently free to enter.

The statue of slave trader Edward Colston went on display in Bristol's M Shed Museum

Chairwoman Sue Thurlow said: "The cuts will inevitably reduce the ability of the museums to put on big and successful exhibitions which bring visitors from the local area and beyond.

"The museums and galleries are vital to Bristol's post-pandemic recovery.

"We fully understand the need to make budget savings at a time when many of our citizens are facing real financial hardship...but cuts to museums and galleries are a false economy which will affect the range and quality of services they can offer."

The M Shed Museum opened on Bristol's Harbourside in 2011

Trade union Unison said staffing levels in the museums would be "literally decimated" with backroom staff taking the brunt of job losses.

Unison also claimed the full extent of the reductions had been "hidden" from the public because the savings were five times more than those originally proposed.

• Parking charges to rise

• Fees for parks proposal

A table listing cost reductions agreed by cabinet last month showed a reduction of £83,000 per year for museums and archives from 2023-24, reported the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

But the same table going to full council now also shows an additional £353,000 reduction from the following year, and a new ongoing total of £436,000.

A Bristol City Council spokesperson said: "The cabinet has proposed a balanced budget that means we can avoid cuts to crucial front line services.

"Savings need to be made to the culture service in line with other savings being made by other departments."

They said the higher number in the budget papers going to full council represented the total saving over three years.