Lancaster City Council to cut funding to museums and visitor centres

Some funding for The Platform had been extended to autumn 2024

Museums, visitor information centres and an entertainment venue will face funding cuts as part of a council's new budget.

Lancaster City Council is facing a budget deficit of £5m by 2026 and is looking to save £2.4m.

Councillors on the multi-party cabinet said factors including years of government cuts and spiralling costs were to blame.

The budget was formally agreed at a meeting on Wednesday.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said plans had been changed in recent weeks, meaning some funding for Morecambe's Platform venue had been extended to autumn 2024, allowing more time for adjustments and talks.

Funding for Morecambe and Lancaster visitor information centres will be cut at the end of the 2023 summer season.

Online visitor information will be enhanced and other council staff, venues and organisations will be trained or asked about offering tourist information in future.

'Little option'

The budget will also see funding cut to Lancaster City Museum.

Christopher Tinmouth, from Friends of Lancaster City Museum, urged the council to rethink its plans, stating that it would be "a travesty of justice" for locals and visitors to be "denied their right to connect with their past and create their own stories".

"I ask the council to consider how it will look to present and future taxpayers and voters... to see Lancaster cutting access to its flagship heritage institutions, especially in the centenary year of its own municipal museum," he said.

However, Labour councillor Sandra Thornberry, who has responsibility for arts, museums and leisure, said the council faced "some very hard challenges, which the budget proposals show".

"There are rising costs, shrinking government grants and the challenge of tackling a deficit," she said.

"Our income comes mainly from council tax and business rates, along with fees and charges.

"We have little option."

Overall, councillors across all the political parties voted to support most of the budget and financial plans.