Slow return for museums

MUSEUMS and galleries will hopefully reopen once Scotland enters Phase Three of lifting lockdown restrictions, but not all museums in Glasgow are likely to return in the near future.

Glasgow Life has announced it has turned its focus on planning the reopening of some of its venues.

The arm’s-length council body confirmed there will be significant challenges to restarting services, including a need for more staff to ensure physical distancing is followed.

It said due to these constraints it will have to prioritise the reopening of some venues ahead of others.

According to a statement issued by Glasgow Life, the Job Retention scheme will likely not be enough to compensate for the financial losses anticipated to run to tens of millions of pounds.

The statement adds: “However, the impact of Covid-19 means we will have to review and prioritise which venues and services we can restart or reopen and when.

“We will be working in partnership with the council to do this over the weeks and months to come, but there are no easy solutions and it is very unlikely that Glasgow Life will be able to return to anything like its normal service provision in the near future.

“We will continue to put the safety of the public and our staff at the forefront of any decisions we take and we will share more details about what we expect will be a phased approach to the reopening of some of our services and venues in due course.”