On Wednesday 7th I spoke in Parliament in a debate on local museums and arts/heritage centres.

I paid tribute to the Maurice Dobson Centre and the fantastic volunteers who make our local museums what they are. But it’s concerning that cuts to local authority budgets are being passed on to public museums, with 39% of these across the country seeing their funding decrease in the last year.

This is bound to have an impact on the experience and services they can provide, and 85% of museums funded by local authorities have reduced their opening hours since last year.