PLANNED cuts to Bradford’s museums will not happen for at least another year - Before which Bradford Council intends to “transform” the service.

The budget for Bradford’s four museums and galleries was due to be slashed by £500,000 in the coming year.

Although details of how the service would be impacted by the cuts had not been announced, it was expected that museums and galleries could have seen vastly reduced opening times.

But in its recent budget, Bradford Council announced that these cuts were now being delayed by a year.

On Thursday members of the Council's Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee will be given an update on why the decision was made to halt the cuts.

For much of last year there has been furious opposition to planned cuts to the museum and library services in Bradford, including strikes by staff.

Striking staff protest against museum and library cuts

Many protestors pointed out the contradiction that Bradford was running to be City of Culture for 2025 while at the same time reducing the offer of its museums and galleries.

A report going to Thursday's meeting says the Museums and Gallery service will play a major role in the culture bid - and that work is being done to obtain Arts Council funding for local museums.

Bradford Council is responsible for running four museums and galleries in the District - Bolling Hall in Bowling, Bradford Industrial Museum in Eccleshill, Cliffe Castle in Keighley and Cartwright Hall in Lister Park, Manningham.

Over the next year the Council will look at the role museums play in the local area and "commission a revised collections storage and rationalisation plan."

It says work will be done to focus on "Bradford as a city with heritage and some extraordinary stories to tell around textile heritage, art, Hockney, Islamic culture, the heritage of people, their journeys and resilience."

The report says: "The cultural offer of the District is under review and being reframed to meet the opportunities of the City of Culture 2025 bid and other large cultural initiatives.

"The Museums and Galleries Service needs a broader vision and an overarching plan for its purpose and delivery, in order to achieve the agreed budget, wider culture opportunities and delivering a modern Museum and Galleries Service."

It says the delay in the cuts will "be used to support the transition phase to a new sustainable model of delivery over a one year period

"It should move the service significantly forward based on its current strengths and the potential local and regional opportunities.

"The opportunity and challenge is that Bradford Museums and Galleries needs a clear and exciting vision for itself and a new model which links it to the community of the district, the new cultural initiatives taking place, the independent museums and heritage organisations in the district and the broader overarching cultural strategy which will be developed during 2020.

"Alongside this, it needs to look at improving its commercial activities such as shops, catering and hires and at how collections can be refreshed and used.

"By 2021, the Museums and Galleries Service needs to be in a position to apply for Arts Council England’s National Portfolio organisation status. This means it needs to meet the accepted standard for local authority museums: working with communities to develop collections, tell stories and showcase Bradford’s art, culture and heritage in partnership with Bradford’s people.

The committee meets in City Hall at 5pm on Thursday.