Cash-strapped Leeds City Council have launched a public consultation into the future of Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall.
As previously reported, the council is proposing to close Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall as it faces unprecedented strain on its finances.
Latest figures show the council needs to save £106.4m during 2025/26 to avoid having it declare itself bankrupt.
Council leader Councillor James Lewis said visitor numbers at Abbey House had dwindled in recent years. He added: “We’ll still have seven museums and gallery sites across Leeds that people can enjoy. Sometimes you have to make hard choices.”
The council already had to save almost £64m in the current financial year. The Abbey House Museum closure could save £160,000.
The consultation into the proposed closure can be found here. You can have your say until 23 January 2025.
The Abbey House Museum consultation is running in parallel with a consultation to introduce entry charges to the main ruins of Kirkstall Abbey for all Leeds residents.
Public consultation? – it will be like the parking at parks – completely ignored.
Leeds has potentially so much to offer as a centre for tourism and needs to make more of its amazing sites. By encouraging more tourists it will put leeds on the map, but i order to do this its industrial heritage needs to be valued. Gotts Mansion could draw tourists from world wide if it became a major art collection for somebody like Alan Bennet, Likewise Twaites Mill, the historic centre and shopping which is 2nd to none. Places like Kirkstall Abbey, the Industrial Museum and Abbey house could be thronged with visitors with good promotion and some wealthy local benefactors to fund the upgrades. Also of corse the amazing local countryside. They all need high quality cafes to support this sort of tourism. Leeds can do it. No matter how often local residents visit these places it’s not going to be enough to support the high cost of running them. places!