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Axe hangs over DH lawrence museum
EASTWOOD'S DH Lawrence Centre could be forced to close after Broxtowe Borough Council reviews its spending.
The stark warning was made by council leader David Watts just one day after the museum picked up a prestigious award for its annual Lawrence Festival.
A budget working group is due to start going through the council's finances in the next few weeks to highlight areas where money could be saved - and Cllr Watts says one option could be axing the museum, which is based at Durban House, and renting it out as office space.
The move comes as the authority seeks to tighten its belt after discovering it will lose out on around 300,000 this year because of government cuts.
He told the Advertiser: "No decisions have been made yet but the budget working group will be looking across the board to see how we can save money.
"The DH Lawrence Centre at Durban House is bound to be looked at because in its current format it just doesn't attract enough visitors.
"It's a beautiful building and that's the most important thing.
"No one wants to see anything happen to it and that may well mean renting it out as office space or for another use.
"The fact is, as a museum it uses up an awful lot of the council's resources and we can't afford that with such big cuts looming.
"All councillors will be involved in the final decision but I think the best thing we could do would be to rent it out in some form."
The budget working group will be looking at every aspect of the council's finances to see where savings and cuts can be made.
Cllr Watts added: "It won't just be museums that will lose cash but unfortunately they will have to make their fair share of cuts.
"We've lost about 300,000 this year and we expect to lose significantly more next year.
"It makes our job as councillors a whole lot harder but we were elected to find the answers to difficult questions and that's what we will have to do now."
It is not the first time that the centre has faced closure. In October 2009, 60,000 of the centre's 150,000 running costs was pulled to help plug a 1.4m hole in the council's budget.
Cllr Milan Radulovic, in charge of leisure for Broxtowe Borough Council said: "I'm disappointed that the DH Lawrence Centre seems to have been singled out again.
"Success is measured in different ways. People come from all over the world to Eastwood because of the museum and the area's links with DH Lawrence. That makes the centre a success to me.
"Planning costs more money than it makes, paying housing benefit costs more than it makes but we can't get rid of them. Everything needs looking at before any decisions are made."
Cllr Radulovic added: "There are plenty of things that need looking at before museums.
"I pose a question to the public. How are our young people expected to respect our culture and heritage when we keep taking perfect examples of it away from them?"
Ron Faulks, acting secretary of the DH Lawrence Society, said the group are fed up of not knowing what is going to happen to the centre.
He said: "This has been going on for about 18 months now and we're still none the wiser.
"The council just won't decide on what they want to happen to it and it's very frustrating for us not to mention the staff.
"The last time I was there a few weeks ago there were between 30 and 40 people there.
"Events and meetings are held there all the time and it is a great asset to the whole community.
"I have a friend visiting from the United States next week and we shall be going there then.
"It is a great resource and should be properly looked after.
"To get rid of it now would be the real waste of money."
No one from the museum was available to comment when the Advertiser went to press.
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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