Published in Museums Journal, January 2010
Hampshire County Council is looking to use volunteers to keep four of its sites open. The council is in negotiations with local district and borough councils over an alternative management model for the Curtis Museum and Allen Gallery in Alton, the Bursledon Windmill, and the Rockbourne Roman Villa.
This could lead to the development of volunteer teams to support interpretation and maintenance at Bursledon Windmill and activities at Rockbourne Roman Villa and the Allen Gallery.
The changes will take place in April, as part of a restructure to address the likely loss of more than £1m of Renaissance funding, coupled with the government-imposed funding cuts.
Across the museum service, the equivalent of 26 full-time posts will be deleted, of which nine collections-management positions will be made redundant.
A source close to the museum service said: “The service is dumbing down and will lose lots of experienced, professional staff. It is worrying that there is a perceived inability to cope with the demands of the museum service in the future.”
Tony Hammond, a negotiator for the union Prospect, who has been involved in negotiations with National Museums Liverpool over its plans to extend its work-experience volunteering scheme, said: “There are lots of national and local authority museums that operate with volunteers.
“We are not against the use of volunteers, but we are opposed to full-time roles being replaced by volunteers.
“The concern is that real jobs are replaced by people being forced off benefits, and maybe people who don’t have relevant expertise are forced into those positions. That is where the Big Society may lead. My concern is that this skill base will not recover.”
