Families feeling (dino) sore at museum box’s price hike

THE cost of the popular escaped dinosaurs machine in the foyer of Leicester’s New Walk Museum has risen to £1 – and some parents and children are not impressed.

The interactive donations box used to cost 20p, for which visitors received a one-minute moving model of enraged miniature dinos breaking free from a model of the museum.

But Leicester City Council, which runs the free-to-enter attraction, decided to increase the price by 400 per cent.

The council said it is the first time the cost has been increased since 2011 when the machine was installed.

But one mum said: “You can forget it if you think I’m paying a quid for that.

“I’ve got two kids who both like to have a go and what used to be 40p is now £2.

“You can go to the museum for free, so I don’t mind making a donation, but this is a really big increase.

“If you need to increase make it 50p rather than £1?

“I know nobody is forced to pay, but my kids love it so there’s a bit of pressure.”

The council updated the machine to cost £1 in July and said nobody has complained to staff.

A spokeswoman said: “Donations are a really important part of our fund-raising activity for our free-to-access museums. Any money raised always goes back into our museums service.

“Since increasing the donations amount for this box – the first increase in seven years – we have already seen donations double.

“However, we will keep our decision under review.”

The council said it has collected £10,111.60 from the escaped dinosaurs display since 2011.

It said it made £915 between July when it raised the price and the end of last month. it, why not