CITY OF YORK councillors have given the green light to a plan which will see an independent charitable trust called in to take over the running of York's museums service.

The move is designed at addressing the problems of declining visitor numbers at museums such as the Castle Museum.

Members of the council's ruling executive enthusiastically backed the scheme, which was said to be the only sensible option to move the museums service in the right direction.

Though the trust would take over the running of the service, the council would still retain ownership of the museum assets and the buildings.

A report to the executive members revealed that over the last ten years, the museums service had lost 37,000 visits a year and cost the council an extra £120,000 every 12 months.

Council leader Rod Hills said he thought some of the museum collections in the city looked "tired".

He said the option of the trust was the only way sufficient capital would be generated.

He said that it was advisable to look at the example set by the Jorvik Viking Centre, which succeeded by reinventing itself regularly.

Coun Alan Jones said the trust option was a "great opportunity" to improve the museums service.

"Hopefully we will have a world-class museums service here in York, the heritage city of England," he added.

But councillors also expressed concern for museum staff, who had felt "uncertainty" while the idea of the trust was being developed.

However, they were assured that staff were being kept fully "up to speed" with what was happening.

Updated: 09:40 Saturday, June 02, 2001