Bournemouth museum to introduce entry charge

Visitors will still be able to use the museum cafe without paying the entry fee

A Dorset seaside museum is to begin charging an entrance fee as a trial during the summer months.

The Russell Cotes Museum, in Bournemouth's East Cliff Hall, is to charge £5 entry from Tuesday.

It is the former home of Sir Merton Russell-Cotes and Lady Russell-Cotes who amassed artefacts from their world-wide travels in the late-19th Century.

Bournemouth Borough Council said funding cuts meant the museum needed to generate more income.

Visitors will still be able to use the museum cafe without paying the entry fee.

Arts and culture councillor Ian Lancashire said a consultation carried out in 2010 showed that the public were "generally supportive of the introduction of an admission fee".