Cutbacks at museum in City of Culture

Hull City Council, which has to make £48m cuts in the next two years, is consulting with staff over the Hands on History Museum, based in the Old Grammar School, where William Wilberforce studied.

A source said officers were making £150,000 of cuts at the museum to avoid reducing open hours at the city’s other museums and art gallery.

He added: “Two months ago they were celebrating City of Culture – this is a blow to morale. The one thing that has annoyed everybody is that they haven’t looked at upper and middle management.”

The council says it will remain open to pre-booked groups and defends the decision on the basis that only a small number of its visitors “drop in”. Staff will be offered redeployment or voluntary redundancy.

Corporate director of regeneration Pauline Davis said they were looking to make bids to the Lottery to invest in the museum: “Hands on History gets 30,000 visitors a year and the bulk are pre-booked, schools and people coming on visits.

“We are getting 150,000 people dropping into the other museums, Streetlife, Maritime Museum and Ferens Art Gallery. You have to make a judgment call.

“What I would hate is that people feel we are just shutting it down. We are not.

“What we are looking at is the whole of the Old Town and Hands on History is central to that. There is a bigger plan.”