YORK Museums Trust has often led the way in recent years.

It provided a model for a more efficient way of running municipal museums and galleries, free of direct local authority control.

It has been great at tapping into lottery and other national funding pots, transforming the Yorkshire Museum and the art gallery along the way.

And it mounted, at the Castle Museum, an extraordinary exhibition paying tribute to those who gave their lives in the First World War, and examining how that conflict helped shape today's Britain.

Sadly, however, the trust now seems on the brink of setting a much less positive example.

A survey by The Press reveals that when it opens on August 1 it could well, depending on the outcome of a city council vote tomorrow, be one of the most expensive civic art galleries in the country.

Certainly no other civic gallery in Yorkshire will come even close to the £7.50 entrance fee York is likely to charge.

We understand there have been huge cuts to arts budgets nationally - and that the York Museums Trust has seen its council subsidy cut by almost £1 million since 2012.

We suspect other galleries and museums may be forced to follow in York's wake as austerity continues to bite.

We even accept that the £17 annual membership (for York Card holders) that will allow entry to any of the trust's museums and galleries as often as you want for a year probably represents good value for money.

But it would still have been nice if some way could have been found to offer York residents at least more opportunities to visit their gallery free.