Council stokes fear over museum restructure

Stoke-on-Trent City Council's planned cut to museum funding will have an “immediate, significant and long-lasting adverse impact”, according to The Heritage Network.

The council has paused proposals to cut £560,000 funding and merge the teams at Gladstone Pottery Museum and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery and says it will present a new business model in a month or two.

If plans go ahead, Gladstone will be closed to the public for five months each year so it can be used as a film set and events venue.

On Tuesday (February 15), the council announced it would extend Gladstone's opening hours to Tuesday through Sunday, reserving the first day of its week as a "special day for schools".

"If we do not take steps to develop Gladstone’s offer, the museum will not sustain and rare crafts could wither and die. We are not prepared for that to happen," Councillor Abi Brown said.

The Heritage Network Chair Danny Callaghan believes the plans will damage Stoke’s “distinctive reputation as a ceramic city of culture”.

“[It will] diminish our ability to build on existing strengths and hamper efforts to develop a truly world class cultural offer, putting years of hard work and planning at risk.”