Beloved Yorkshire museum safe 'for foreseeable future' after three earmarked for closure
Almondbury councillor Bernard McGuin was reacting to a Kirklees Council report that appeared to show “enthusiastic support from the public” for a new museum and art gallery in the centre of the town.
However critics said the survey geared towards developing the borough’s culture and heritage offer was “skewed” and that they had not seen the report before it was published.
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Hide AdCoun McGuin voiced his scepticism about the survey and the report that followed, which champions a new museum within a “cultural heart” envisaged as part of the £250m blueprint project.
That new facility could incorporate the much trumpeted National Rugby League Museum, which was previously announced as being housed in Huddersfield’s iconic George Hotel, the birthplace of the sport in 1895.
Coun McGuin said: “I think that the council’s ideas for a cultural heart with a museum will be an artefact in a Kirklees version of ‘believe it or not’.
“It is five years since a former chief executive called me out for saying their plan for a museum in the town centre, even by their report [in 2016], was years away.
“He told me that ‘it would be ready in months’.
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Hide Ad“Sixty months later he has gone and we have another report. Inside museum staff know that even if a move was decided today it would take years to implement.
“Creating the cultural heart means ripping out the trading heart of Huddersfield and may well be undeliverable. Tolson Museum will be safe for the foreseeable future.”
Kirklees Council has been preparing to axe museums since 2014.
In a report titled ‘Future of Museums and Galleries’ it outlined a transformation plan that involved separating collections from museum buildings, exploring future uses for the sites that would not remain as museums, and prioritising collections to focus on items that told the Kirklees’ story and “reflected better our diverse communities”.
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Hide AdIts medium term financial plan for 2016-19 slashed the museums budget from £1.057m to £526,000 and pledged to “review and reduce the number of museums and galleries to no more than three and reduce opening hours”.
Consequently Red House Museum in Gomersal and Dewsbury Museum were both shut by Kirklees Council in 2016 amid budget cuts blamed on austerity.
At the same time Tolson Museum was earmarked for closure.
The council opted to retain Oakwell Hall and Country Park in Birstall, Bagshaw Museum in Batley, and Huddersfield Museum and Art Gallery with the latter “to be developed in a location in Huddersfield town centre yet to be decided. This will be the main site for museum services in South Kirklees.”
The report added: “The vision proposes that Tolson Museum and Huddersfield Art Gallery should continue to deliver services until plans for a new Huddersfield Museum and Art Gallery have been fully developed.
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Hide Ad“This is so that museum services can still be accessed in South Kirklees during development.”
Earlier this year the council revealed that the Grade II* listed 19th century Red House would be refurbished and remodelled to become a five-star holiday destination and wedding venue.