Museum is closing – but council to spend £300K on repairs
‘MAINTAIN BASIC FABRIC OF THE BUILDING’
KIRKLEES Council is to spend up to six figures to repair the roof of a museum it is shutting down.
Plans to make the crumbling Tolson Museum, at Moldgreen, watertight are being put into action after years of problems with leaks.
But they come amid continued uncertainty about the future of the museum.
The council has vowed it is closing the museum, and moving its collections from the Tolson to a new location.
But, more than three years have now elapsed since it made the shock announcement that it was axing the venue.
The council has now confirmed it intends to pump cash into repairing the flat roofs on the 1920s- and 1930s-built extensions to the original Victorian mansion.
About £300,000 of taxpayers’ money was allocated to repairs at the historic museum in the last council budget.
Most of the allocation is thought to be for the roof, although the boiler system is also to be replaced.
An estimated £4.2m-worth of repairs was cited as the main reason for the closure, amid a £500,000 cut in the overall budget for museums in the borough in 2016.
While Dewsbury Museum and Red House Musuem, in Gomersal, were quickly closed, the council said it would leave Tolson – in Ravensknowle Park – open until it secured new premises to display its collections in Huddersfield town centre.
But, more than 36 months on, noone outside of the council’s top team knows what the future holds.
During the launch of the Huddersfield Blueprint last June, the council indicated it wanted the museum to be in the “Cultural Heart” of town – an area it intends to create by demolishing the Piazza centre shops and re-purposing Queensgate Market. There is still no confirmation of whether it intends to use the market hall, build new premises or use any alternative site.
The Friends of Tolson Museum, led by former Kirklees councillor Ann Denham, are fighting the proposal.
They fear the council plans to try and squeeze their collections into the Huddersfield Central Library and Art Gallery building.
Kirklees Council’s Cabinet member for corporate, Clr Graham Turner, said: “Tolson Museum is a listed building and we have a responsibility to protect and maintain it.
“As part of the Huddersfield Blueprint, we are committed to develop