Located in a tiny corner

SAVE OUR MUSEUM: In 2008 Councillor Elfan Ap Rees was quoted in the Mercury as revealing the future is looking brighter for Weston Museum, he said that a review panel had come up with a number of initiatives designed to keep the attraction open.

He was supposed to be launching a two staged attack to keep the museum where it is in Burlington Street, and is quoted as saying "it's not all about saving money"

Well now it appears that it is!

The Conservative council now wish to turn our museum into a 'facility' to be located in a tiny corner of the Winter Gardens, (which they are also planning to let off. How many of our local treasures are they going to fit in a few glass cabinets?

Our museum is packed full of fascinating local history and for nearly 150 years local people have entrusted family heirlooms to the museum, safe in the knowledge that they would be on permanent display to generations of local people and visitors.

Where are these items going to go? Are the councillors planning to pack them up and return them one by one?

If a museum 'facility' relocated to the Winter Gardens, how long would it be safe there before it disappears completely and where will we then take our children to explore play and learn about their local history and what about the 120 schools that visited it last year?

Look what the council has done, or more accurately not done about our Tropicana, our museum will undoubtedly have the same dismal fate.

This appalling Conservative council wishes to raise money by selling this wonderful treasure of a building. No doubt to pay a tiny portion of the �14.6million needed to move themselves to new offices in Clevedon. I don't expect it will even cover their consultancy fees!

How can they say they are doing this to reduce our rates whist in the same breath plan to spend all this money on fancier offices? Let them cast their attention to Bridgwater where the local council have taken on The Blake Museum and are refurbishing it.

A museum is not designed to make a profit any more than a library is, instead they are both valuable resources that belong to the people of North Somerset and not the council.

Also have they considered that taking North Somerset employees away from our town will further lead to more businesses closing within the town centre? Surely there are enough empty shops and premises already!

Perhaps they don't care because most of them don't live in Weston anyway.

The council should think very carefully about their decision. When people vote in the next election they will take this museum fiasco, the Tropicana, the proposed closure of Poppyfields all into consideration and our despotic councillors may find they don't end up spending very long in their new building in Clevedon.

If you love our town and wish to stop it becoming a half empty shopping centre bereft of culture, make a stand now. Let your council know how you feel, ask questions, demand answers.

Our heritage and our community is being threatened. Our museum is a valuable and much-loved resource in the heart of our town, it must remain open for our children and children's children.

Visit www.thewestonmercury.co.uk and download a 'save our museum' poster. Public meeting at The Blakehay March 6 at 10:30. Protect the future of the museum

ANNIE PICKARD

Mums for the museum

Nithsdale Road, Weston