Councillors have approved plans to charge non-York residents £2 plus VAT to use the City art gallery.

The move flies in the face of pleas made Friends of York Art Gallery at last night's leisure services committee meeting.

"Experience shows that any charge, however modest and with whatever exemptions and concessions, will result in a substantial drop in visitor numbers," said vice-president Alan Hitchcock.

Liberal Democrat councillor Sue Galloway said the art gallery needed to be marketed better.

"Many people in York don't know what the art gallery has got," she said.

"There is not enough being done to show-off what we've got."

The committee's proposal was made as part of a cost cutting package, but is subject to ratification by full council. Further debate centred around whether or not the charge would be permanent or for review, and whether or not it would raise the £50,000 expected.

Coun Bob Scrase was keen to point out that any charges would be carefully monitored and would be withdrawn if visitor numbers dropped dramatically.

"It would be an experiment," he said. "We would see over a period of time how it is working and then reconsider if need be.

"There are few other opportunities to find many other savings and we would have to be quite careful to see what effect the charges would have."

Final chapter of York Story

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.