Lancaster councillors approve museum and visitor centre funding cuts
The decisions were made during a meeting about the City Council's budget last night
Council tax and budget arrangements for Lancaster City Council’s new financial year have been formally agreed, including funding cuts for museums, visitor information centres and Morecambe’s Platform venue.
Speakers from a Lancaster Museum friends’ group and the King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum addressed the council’s budget meeting, asking for a rethink.
However, leading councillors on the multi-party cabinet said they sympathised with the speakers but said factors including years of government cuts and spiralling costs were to blame. They hoped new options could be found to operate the venues differently and, in future years, financial circumstances might be easier.
Elsewhere, there were some claims from Conservative and Labour councillors that city council democracy was being thwarted with rules on how alternative budget ideas should be presented.
But this was rejected by the Greens and a senior council officer. They said the Conservatives had not followed key processes.
Early in the meeting, police removed a man who was disrupting events and arguing with council staff about having to sign a visitor’s book. He had been at a previous meeting last month. The meeting was adjourned and police handcuffed him after arguments and a struggle in the public seating area. It was unclear what he wanted to speak about or hear in the meeting. A range of topics were on the agenda including a number of public speakers.
MUSEUM SPEAKERS
Christopher Tinmouth from the Friends of Lancaster City Museum was the first speaker.
He said: “I’m speaking as a citizen and a friend of Lancaster, its city, coast and countryside, but most of all as a friend of Lancaster City Museum and the King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum. This museum is dear to my heart, the hearts of so many who call Lancaster their home, and those who pass through its time-honoured streets.
“It has been a solace to me in times of great despair and I have grown as person through my employment and association with the county museums service.
“These are indeed times that are provoking despair for those who have the best interests of our culture and heritage at-heart, when up to 40 per cent of the museum service budget is proposed to be cut. This is a travesty of justice for tax-payers and visitors, who I maintain have a civic right to have access to the shared cultural heritage of Lancaster, but also to future generations, denied their right to connect with their past and create their own stories.”
He added: “I ask the council to consider how it will look to present and future tax-payers and voters who move into this area in the wake of the Eden Project success, to see Lancaster cutting access to its flagship heritage institutions, especially in the centenary year of its own municipal museum.”
He referred to the Facing The Past and Lancaster Slave Family Tree projects, looking at the city’s slave trade links; activity with Lancaster University and the 100 Podcasts scheme as examples of important history and museum-related work to explore difficult aspects of the city’s history.
He urged the council to rethink the museum funding cut plans, which he said was a draconian course of action.
‘MUSEUMS ARE A FRONT-LINE SERVICE’
Robin Ashcroft, chair of trustees at The King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum, which is housed in the Lancaster City Museum said: “The review of the council’s budget and likely cuts to the museum service budget is an area of uncertainty and concern to the trust. That said, we do recognise the serious challenges you face and we are determined to play a positive role in helping you address these.”
He said the trust had improved in recent years and was now a professionally skilled, dynamic and proactive organisation able to support Lancaster’s heritage tourist economy. It had won over £100,000 in funding and the Hinge of Fate exhibition was one of the consequences.
He said: “This is a fresh, vibrant and contemporary exhibition, prioritising social as much as military history, and has engaged many communities, delivering increased visitor numbers and secondary spending into Lancaster city centre.”
Mr Ashcroft then said: “In your own council plan, you identify the importance of access and involvement in culture and heritage. On this basis, your museums are a front-line service. But will your museums be able to deliver on this objective, given the planned budget cuts? Overall, they constitute a very small amount compared with other front-line services.”
He mentioned Arts Council documents about how culture can boost city centres, mental health, tourism, local economies, jobs and skills, and regeneration.
Finally, he said the council leader, Coun Caroline Jackson, had said the city museum was a bit tired and the changes offered opportunities to update it. The trust had a clear vision but it could only deliver on this in cooperation with the council, he said.
“Over the past four years, despite Covid, we have made solid progress towards your ambition to redevelop the City Museum. We stand ready to support you in delivering a high-quality heritage offer for the benefit of your communities and the visitor economy. We fully understand you face a difficult overspend. But let’s not ‘know the cost of something and the value of nothing’.”
‘WE FACE VERY HARD CHALLENGES’
In reply, Labour Coun Sandra Thornberry, the cabinet member with an arts, museums and leisure remit, said: “I applaud and understand the vital role of museums across the district. We know the area has got a stunning cultural potential and we have got our own strategic plan for it.
“We face some very hard challenges, which the budget proposals show. There are rising costs, shrinking government grants and the challenge of tackling a deficit. Our income comes mainly from council tax and business rates, along with fees and charges. We have little option. We will take some from our reserves this year but that is a short-term action. If government funding changes in the future, we will look at options again.
“Between April and October, we will firm-up definitive proposals on how savings will be made. There will be some reduced hours but not necessarily a half timetable. There will be consultation with a working group and staff. New operations will begin in October, so there is some time between now and then. After the elections, there could be all sorts of options.
“There is also a strong volunteer scene across the district. We will keep working with everyone – friends’ groups and stakeholders – to seek ways to help museums. ”
Budget plans had been changed in recent weeks, meaning some funding for The Platform had been extended to autumn 2024, allowing more time for adjustments and talks.
Funding for Morecambe and Lancaster visitor information centres will be cut sooner at the end of the 2023 summer season.
On-line visitor information will be enhanced and other council staff, venues and organisations will be trained or asked about offering tourist information in future.
POLITICAL GROUP RESPONSES
Overall, councillors across all the political parties voted to support most of the budget and financial plans.
The Conservatives said they disagreed with some aspects but claimed they had no choice but to vote in favour of most recommendations because of how council rules about alternative budget ideas were being interpreted.
Conservative group leader Coun Andrew Gardiner said: “People speak about democracy tonight and cabinet members say they have spoken to other political groups. But the Conservatives have been denied the chance to put forward our alternative budget plans by the council constitution. In the past, alternative proposals could be put forward. But not now under the Greens.”
However Green councillors and a council officer said the current Conservative group had not followed the right procedure to offer an alternative budget.
Green Coun Caroline Jackson, leader of the council, rejected Coun Gardiner’s criticism. She said: “I sat through those previous, alternative budget proposals in past years. The alternative proposals were done with the section 151 officer a key financial officer and we listened.”
Then a council officer said any alternative budgets had to be fully-costed but the procedure had not been followed on this occasion.
Coun Gardiner said this had not been explained to him when he spoke to the officer earlier in the evening. He also said different procedures were operated at city council and county council meetings.
The officer then said the Conservatives now had the option to make objections to the budget plans at the meeting. But not amendments.
But Labour Coun Erica Lewis also had some concerns about the matter.
She said: “I hope there will be more opportunities to return to these issues raised by Coun Gardiner. I think this is a sad day for democracy at Lancaster City Council. The leader made her own amendment to the budget in 2019 but now seeks to take away that right.”
Coun Lewis also called for wide community and political consultation on issues and future plans for Morecambe, including the Eden Project; welcomed a forthcoming Morecambe Summit event, and suggested South Lakeland and Barrow councils be invited.
COUNCIL TAX AND BUDGET ACCOUNTS
Councillors were told they were all responsible for agreeing the budget. It was not the responsibility of the cabinet councillors alone.
The new council tax was formally agreed, meaning a Band D property will pay £249.18 a year to Lancaster City Council. The lowest Band A will pay £166.12 and the highest Band H will pay £498.36
Lancashire County Council’s precept will be £1,574 for a Band D property. The Lancashire Police & Crime Commissioner precept will be just over £251 and Lancashire Fire Service precept will be just over £82.
Parish and town council precepts will be added, where they exist.
Labour Coun Anne Whitehead, a cabinet member with a finance remit, set-out a range of budget plans. She blamed government cuts and rising costs for the difficult choices and rejected Conservative suggestions that better decisions could have been made in the past.
Green Coun Tim Hamilton Cox, another cabinet member, said the council faced a £5million shock over the next two years.
He said: “To deal with that is extremely difficult. This is why we have these unpalatable decisions. This has not been an easy process. Officers have done a lot of hard work and councillors have quizzed the details.”
Bay Independent Group Coun Cary Matthews, also a cabinet member, spoke on housing budgets.
Different votes were taken on the new council tax, day-to-day spending known as revenue, housing budgets, savings, major one-off projects known as capital projects and council cash reserves.
Conservative Coun Andrew Gardiner said Salt Ayre Leisure Centre had never made a profit and the council should speak to a private operator about running it. Other councils had handed visitor information centres to town councils and made profit. Alternatively, visitor centres could be well-run by volunteers.
In other comments, he looked forward to the May local elections and potential changes in the council chamber. He could work better with Labour rather than the Greens, he suggested.
But Green Coun Gina Dowding claimed the Conservatives were confused and contradicting their own financial beliefs during the different votes.
She said: “I must respond the Conservatives’ bluster. They have tonight voted to support most of the budget recommendations about revenue, which is the main part of the budget. But they did not vote to maintain a £5million reserve for uncertainties. They failed to support extremely high reserves for this council, which is the definition of prudence. We can’t take advice from them despite their reported business acumen.”
Coun Dowding also said she was also surprised to hear Coun Gardiner wishing Labour well in the elections.