Museum closures to be included in budget proposal

Councillors are set to discuss closing museums, one which has been described as part of a "jewel in the city's crown", in plans to plug a funding gap.

Under the new committee system, all Bristol City councillors will have to agree on how best to make £43m in savings over the next two years, at City Hall next week.

One of the options to be discussed is shutting Blaise Museum, The Georgian House and Red Lodge - which could save the council £132,000 by 2030.

But some councillors have already expressed their opposition to the idea.

Councillor Mark Weston said closing any museums will still create a cost for the local authority

"From our point of view, closing these museums is probably not going to save any money because the council is still going to have the liability," Mr Weston said.

"The buildings are listed and they legally have to maintain them as they are, so if you close them you remove any opportunity to raise money, but you still keep all the costs of maintaining all of those buildings.

"The Blaise Museum is such a key part of the estate - it's the jewel in the city's crown."

Deputy leader Heather Mack, Green Party, said the council is trying to be "transparent" and by putting "all of the options out there to work out what the best decisions are".

"With the money that we do have we're looking at how do we make a library service that is more reliable," she said.

She also explained that council taxes "will be going up slightly"

"But at the same the costs of our social care services have gone up so we need some help with that," she added.

Other options that have been put on the table are to change black wheelie bin collection days to once every three or four weeks, raising parking charges and cutting help for struggling families.

Council leader and Green Party representative Tony Dyer said the council would face bankruptcy if it could not close the financial gap so needed to make tough decisions.

He said: "This is a very tough time for Bristol, and we recognise the difficulties being faced by many households and communities.

"This will not be a perfect or painless process – with the challenges we face it was never going to be."

The council will meet on Tuesday to begin the discussions before all proposals are put forward at a full council meeting in February.

Follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.