Fareham's Westbury Manor Museum set to close due to Hampshire Cultural Trust funding cuts and Fareham Borough Council dispute

Westbury Manor Museum, in West Street in the town centre, is among five at-risk arts and culture venues managed by Hampshire Cultural Trust – which it says is due to “as a result of local authority funding

challenges.”

Fareham Borough Council confirmed that the museum will no longer be operated by the HTC on December 31 2024 – and the council has said it is “not in a position” to provide funding assistance. Ashcroft Arts Centre in Fareham is also set to close.

Hampshire Cultural Trust has been managing Westbury Manor Museum for the council since 2014. Initially, the cost of funding the Museum was shared with the Council providing an annual subsidy of £64,500. In 2016 it was agreed that the Council would invest £448,000 towards the refurbishment of the Museum in lieu of an annual subsidy and the HCT shared its plans with the Council to ensure the Museum would be a vibrant and viable addition to the town centre.

As a result, a new 10-year management agreement was put in place. In 2023, the trust approached the council for further funding “given the challenging economic climate”, but this was declined.

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Fareham Borough Council executive leader Councillor Seán Woodward said: “This is extremely disappointing news for Fareham as the 10-year agreement was signed in good faith and backed up with significant investment by the Council. HCT were confident they would deliver a thriving museum for our town centre. The Council is not in a position to further subsidise the HCT and, in any event, based on this turn of events, and indeed the similar fate of the Ashcroft Arts Centre, it feels to me that this would be throwing good money away.

“Westbury Manor Museum and gardens are a beautiful asset in the heart of Fareham town centre and Fareham Borough Council has held many successful events there in recent years. At the end of last year, we started work on our exciting plans to regenerate the town centre and the future of the building will now be considered as part of that wider work.”

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The other venues which could be closed are Eastleigh Museum, – temporarily closed to the public and due to permanently close in January 2025 – Andover Museum and the Museum of the Iron Age in 2026, and Curtis Museum, Alton in 2026. The trust blames “substantially reduced local authority funding” for the decisions. It will also cease to operate Bursledon Windmill in March 2024 following the withdrawal of funding by Eastleigh Borough Council in 2023.

Hampshire Cultural Trust chief executive Paul Sapwell said: “Our position is that we do not want to close any of the venues we operate, but faced with substantially reduced local authority funding, we have had no option but to make some very difficult decisions. We intend to mitigate the full effect of the funding challenge through a wider business plan that includes potentially taking on new, more financially sustainable venues, as well as growing existing areas of our business. However, new opportunities and growth cannot fully offset the reduction in council funding currently proposed and some venue closures will therefore also be necessary.”