Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276

Questions have been asked about how much Horsham Museum costs to run and why there has been such a steep drop in visitor numbers.

The issue was raised by Nigel Jupp (Con, Billingshurst) during a meeting of the district council’s overview and scrutiny committee on Monday (November 21).

Figures presented to the meeting showed that 4,871 people had visited the museum, in the Causeway, during the second quarter of 2022/23 – well short of the target of 6,000.

In 2018/19 and 2019/20, visitor numbers hovered around the 90,000 mark.

But then, of course the site had to close during lockdown.

The council’s revenue budget allocated £226,000 to the museum this financial year, with £94,000 spent so far.

Income currently stands at £11,000, with the take by the end of the year expected to be £46,000 – a gap of £178,000.

Regarding the visitor numbers, Mr Jupp said: “We should be seeking an explanation for why these figures have so dramatically changed – they’ve dropped from something like 90,000 to 20,000.

“But what the real point here is we’re looking at a revenue loss of £180,000 for 20,000 people visiting our museum – so for every one person who goes through the doors, we lose £9.

“I just wondered what this council feels is an acceptable loss per visitor we have at the museum – is it £10? Is it £20?

“How far do we go? When do we start looking at the efficiencies of the museum in order to decide what will be an acceptable level?

“There was something hugely wrong with the way in which we based our financial calculations on the museum.

“As a scrutiny committee we should be appraised as to what those reasons are.”

A performance report submitted to the meeting said: “The forecasted visitor figures for after the reopening had an element of uncertainty with summer forecasts higher than other periods.

“The visitor figures have remained relatively steady and so we would hope to surpass the visitor figures for the winter quarters.”

Committee chairman Tony Bevis said the situation would be discussed further at a future meeting.

To find out more about Horsham Museum and what you can see during a visit, have a look at its website.

Costs of running Horsham Museum questioned as visitor numbers fall