Bristol City Council has proposed permanently closing three museums in its bid to tackle a £51.6m budget gap for the next financial year.
Officers have suggested closing the city’s Blaise Castle House Museum, the Georgian House Museum and the Red Lodge Museum to save £132,000 by 2030, and cutting the opening hours of the Archives Search Room.
The council is considering ‘alternative options’ for the future of the buildings and their collections.
Bristol has also proposed increasing the cost of community meals, reducing the frequency of non-recyclable waste collections, and cutting spending on libraries by up to £2.4m.
The council’s finance sub-committee will go over the options at two meetings next week before formal draft proposals are put together.
Council leader Tony Dyer warned it was a ‘very tough time for Bristol’, with the authority at risk of bankruptcy if it did not close its funding gap.
He said: ‘We need to take a bigger, bolder, and more politically courageous approach to our budget.
‘We cannot keep salami-slicing public services, nor can we pretend that words like “efficiency” and “productivity” hold all the answers.
‘Many of the savings options published today recognise this – reflecting a need for comprehensive changes to the way the council works internally, with residents and communities, and with partners to deliver its services.’
