“Until there isn’t anything left”

Portsmouth is a bustling seaside town where the tourism industry has grown over the years and represents an increasingly important part of the local economy.

 
Integral to this is Portsmouth’s many museums, which are now under threat as the local council has proposed changes to staffing. These changes would see paid seasonal workers replaced by volunteers.

 
The staff consultation is due to end today (February 27).

 
The Tory-led Portsmouth council has presided over a devastating museum funding cuts regime, which has included ÂŁ150,000 in slashed services over the past five years, with another ÂŁ100,000 in cuts planned through 2017.

 
Unite warns that the council’s proposals will invariably affect opening hours and could threaten to shut down museums entirely, including Portsmouth’s city museum, Charles Dickens’ birthplace and the Natural History Museum.

 
Most of Portsmouth’s museums are already shut on Mondays, with Dickens’ birthplace on the verge of being shut on all days save weekends. Portsmouth city museum’s temporary exhibition programme will also likely end by October under current proposals.

 
Unite regional officer Ian Woodland said that services would suffer if the council moves to replace experienced professionals currently running the city’s museums.

 
“We believe that this change in delivery, coupled with the ending of temporary exhibitions, will see a decline in what the museums can offer in Portsmouth to residents and tourists alike,” he said.

 
At a time when the city council can offer to bail out the Theatre Royal project to the tune of £150,000 our members feel justifiably let down.”

 
“With all the cuts so far, making it hard for staff to run the current museum service, the prospect of closed museums will become a regular – and dismal – feature of Portsmouth life,” Woodland added.

 
“It feels like we have a service that is being managed into decline. If nothing is done then it will be completely wound down until there isn’t anything left.”

 
Museum funding cuts are part of a worrying trend across the nation, one revealed in the Museum Association’s annual Cuts Survey. The most recent survey showed that a third of responding museums reported increased use of volunteers and interns, with more than half of respondents reporting cuts to full-time staff, the highest percentage since the survey began in 2011.