RAAC closure causes £400k loss for museum

York Museums Trust (YMT) has revealed it lost £400,000 in revenue because one of its sites was closed for three months following the discovery of reinforced autoclaved concrete (RAAC).

The Castle Museum, housed in the former York County Gaol, was shut between September and December while undergoing remedial works to deal with RAAC from a roof installed in the 1980s.

In a report due to be presented to councillors on 9 April, Kathryn Blacker, Chief Executive of York Museums Trust, said that despite reopening on 8 December, the museum suffered losses over the Christmas period as it was not able to fully market its intended programme of events.

Blacker added: "We had to drop our prices in this period, and we had much lower visitor numbers, which impacted our retail and catering on-site".

The closure cost York Museums Trust around £400,000 in addition to the £80,0000 paid from its reserves to cover the remedial works. 

“Unfortunately, we have still not been able to reopen the upper half of the female prison because of the need to mitigate remaining RAAC issues," Blacker wrote.

Predicting a drop in visitor numbers from 2023 to 2024, Blacker continued: “We remain loss-making given our reliance on visitor income and trading through our Enterprise subsidiary for 70% our funding."

She said the organisation has £0.8m in its reserves, amounting to less than two months of operating costs.

YMT currently receives an annual grant of £300,000 from City of York Council, which Blacker notes was reduced from £600k in 2015-16 and £1.1m in 2014-15. 

The organisation hopes to secure a £5m grant from Arts Council England's Museum Estate and Development Fund in 2024-25 to help with re-roofing costs and recoup losses.