Have an art, plead museum's friends

Friends of Blackburn Museum say councillors must think the borough's residents are Philistines.

The council aims to slash almost £250,000 from the community and leisure budget as part of almost £1 million cuts needed across all departments to avoid capping.

Proposals for around £70,000 of cuts in the museum service - including the loss of seven jobs and reduced opening hours - will be discussed on Monday at the council's special budget meeting.

If the package goes ahead, the museum - which already shuts on Sundays and Mondays - will not open at all during the remaining weekday and Saturday mornings, except for school parties.

"The council thinks Blackburn doesn't need arts. It thinks people in the borough are Philistines," said Friends' chairman Joy Heffernan.

"We are facing a genuine crisis in our museum service. We have raised money to help the museum and art gallery expand and restore collections. "The museum has some extremely valuable and interesting collections, and access to them will be limited if opening hours have to be reduced.

"People come from all over the world to see items like the Hart collection and the Japanese prints."

The Friends have called an emergency meeting in the museum on Monday. Only a few hundred yards away in the town hall, the council budget meeting will decide on the ruling Labour group's proposals.

Blackburn Council community and leisure services committee chairman Councillor Jack Fairless said savings had to come from somewhere and the museum was less used than other services.

"We could have closed a community centre, but we thought the museum cuts would have less effect on the people of Blackburn.

"It is Labour policy to look after the people in our borough who are less fortunate in terms of employment and income.

"They make more use of community centres than the museum."

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