Brecon 'may lose' Royal Welsh Regimental Museum

Around half of the museum collection is in storage because of a lack of space to display it

Councillors in Brecon fear the town could lose a military museum after a move to larger premises fell through.

It comes after Royal Welsh Regimental Museum trustees said taking over the old public library was not viable.

Council leaders turned down a call for a meeting last month to discuss rumours the deal was off, Powys county councillors representing Brecon claim.

"The council can't stick its head in the sand and hope someone else will solve this problem," they said.

"It's their responsibility to make sure this building [the former library] doesn't languish further."

The regimental museum is a popular attraction covering more than 300 years of Welsh military history, including the 19th Century Zulu wars in South Africa.

However, it needs new premises as it can currently only display half of its collection of 100,000 uniforms, weapons, medals and other artefacts.

Zulu Queen Mpumi visited Brecon in 2018 to prepare for the following year's 140th anniversary of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in South Africa

The council confirmed last Friday that plans to move the collection to the former public library in Ship Street had fallen through.

The town's three county councillors - Mathew Dorrance, David Meredith and Liz Rijnenberg - said they asked for an urgent meeting with council leaders in December after hearing rumours the deal had fallen through.

They said they were "very worried about the future of the Regimental Museum in Brecon and the old library in Ship Street which is deteriorating after years of neglect".

The former public library, built in the 1960s, is empty after its services were moved to the £14m Y Gaer complex

The library closed in 2019 with staff and resources moved to the former Shire Hall, which reopened that year as the £14m Y Gaer cultural hub.

Powys council leader Rosemarie Harris replied to the December letter, saying: "Our current position is that we have an agreed sale of the site to the Regimental Museum.

"However should the trustees confirm they no longer wish to proceed, we will review our options for the site which occupies an important and prominent location in the town.

"I simply do not accept that the Cabinet and Executive leadership team need to improve their communication on the matter."

Asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service if Ms Harris would now agree to meet the Labour councillors, a spokesman for Powys County Council said the leader had not received another letter from the Brecon members.