Revised opening times announced for cultural venues

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The changes relate to Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Bantock House Museum (the popular café and park is unaffected), Bilston Craft Gallery and Wolverhampton City Archives, and will come into effect from Monday 6 February.

Following feedback at public meetings and from 735 people through the online survey, the council has adapted its original proposals for the 4 venues to ensure they are open at times when demand is highest.

The changes will also make an annual saving of almost £28,000. Councillor John Reynolds, Cabinet Member for City Economy, said: "Having reviewed visitor numbers and peak times we felt the current opening times for these 4 venues were not cost effective at a time when local authorities are having to manage huge Central Government cuts.

"We also wanted to ensure these venues are open at times when there is most demand for them.

"The consultation process let the public have their say and we have adapted our proposals based on the feedback we received.

"We feel the revised opening times are the best way forward."

There are no proposals to change the opening hours at the Art Gallery. New opening hours were introduced in July 2016 to enable the site to open over a 7 day week. These have been received favourably by users and the consultation showed 64% of those surveyed were happy with the current hours. Opening hours for the gallery will remain as 10.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Saturday, and 11am to 4pm on Sundays.

The new hours for Bantock House allow for seasonal opening, which was a pattern suggested by some stakeholders and is also based on footfall being quieter in winter. The summer season will run from 1 April to 30 September and the winter period from 1 October to 31 March. The popular café at Bantock will continue to open as normal, separately from the house.

Bilston Craft Gallery is to open Thursday to Saturday, from 12pm to 4pm. This reflects the findings of the consultation, which revealed that most people preferred to visit in the afternoons. Craftplay for under 5s will continue to operate as normal, outside of these hours, as it is separately staffed and can open independently of the gallery.

The current 21 hour week at the City Archives has been shuffled to create some weekend opening to attract new users through events and activities aimed at engaging people. This pattern will be reviewed after 6 months.

The sites will open to educational groups, or for corporate events, where the costs of these activities are fully recovered. They could also open on Bank Holidays for special events.         

The current opening hours, along with the proposed opening hours both before and after the consultation are summarised in the tables below:

Bantock House 

Bilston Craft Gallery

City Archives

• released: Tuesday 17 January, 2017