Bristol could hand over control of city's museums

Bristol City Council could hand over the running of its museums, including the forthcoming £26-million M-Shed, to another organisation.

The council's museums and archives select committee says that over the next two years "serious consideration" should be given to a number of management options for the city's six museums to save money and speed up decisions.

The options are: a trust, a partnership with neighbouring local authorities, a public/private partnership, community ownership or privatisation.

Paul Barnett, who is in charge of the council's museums service, stresses he does not believe privatisation will happen, and that the word can send "shivers down the spine".

The committee report states: "The existing buildings, collections, staff and commercial activities could all be within the scope of any possible plan to externalise the service".

Details are thin on the ground, with the committee stating "it is likely to take at least two years to achieve a thorough appraisal and

prepare the necessary legal and financial grounding" for any changes to take place.

This would coincide with the planned opening in 2011 of the Museum of Bristol project, now renamed M-Shed.

Chaired by Conservative group leader Richard Eddy, the committee looked at a range of management options, and went on fact-finding visits to Glasgow and Tyne & Wear.

Mr Barnett said he favoured the trust model, adding that where other local authorities had handed over control of museums, the buildings and collections remained in council ownership.

The select committee has made 28 recommendations on the future of the service, which covers the M-Shed, City Museum and Art Gallery, Blaise Castle, Red Lodge, Georgian House and the Bristol Record Office, stressing the need for a wider variety of funding.

A quarter of the service's £5.3m income has come from the government's Renaissance In The Regions programme, but this is due to end in 2011.

In addition, the service is aiming to reduce the fixed costs of £4.6 million it spends on 119 employees and premises by 18 per cent by the same date.

But Mr Barnett denied this would necessarily lead to redundancies, even though a review of staffing in the museums service is being carried out.

He told the Evening Post: "We need to be smarter commercially and increase our effectiveness in generating income.

"I don't think there are areas of the museums service that could be privatised, and I can't think of any museums that have been.

"It doesn't mean we couldn't be more efficient.

"I would guess the trust model is going to be the one we would end up with here.

The report is due to be considered by the full council next month.

● IT'S not just the Museum of Bristol that could be renamed as part of a re-branding of the service.

Bristol City Council is considering renaming other museums and has hired Manchester-based company True North to re-brand the museum service as a whole, at a cost of £73,000.

Mr Barnett said the City Museum and Art Gallery was likely to be renamed the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.