Walsall Council leader defends leather museum move as taxpayers subsidise 12,000 visitors at £24 per head

For the 12,000 annual visitors to the museum which is free entry, it costs the council £24 per head, a figure only offset by shop sales which earns around £49,000 per year.

The figures were heard at a cabinet meeting on January 15, 2025, when the council leader, councillor Garry Perry was defending the proposed relocation of the leather museum. 

The council announced its plans to move the town’s main attraction from its current site to one of the council’s more centrally located town centre properties. The move should save the council £190,000.

Councillor Perry said: “We have been very clear, the leather museum is not closing. That potentially could have been a real option, as difficult and unpalatable as that may have been. We have not been able to resolve some of the really significant challenges this administration has had in the budget.

“When we set the budget, we will be looking and seeking to relocate the leather museum, not close it. We will build on and enhance its offer alongside our other cultural assets in this town that we are most proud of.

“We’ve built within the budget process some contingency plans. There is a budget available for the relocation, whatever that looks like, wherever it may be.

“Options potentially include a temporary fixed location so that we can work out what the longer term plan will be. But all we’re doing is making the decision as I said, to relocate, not close, something that is of significant value to the people of this borough. I can’t be any clearer than that.”

The final budget will be presented to cabinet members on February 12, 2025, before approval by Walsall Council on February 26, 2025.