SIX members of staff at York’s Castle Museum are being made redundant as York Museums Trust faces up to public spending cuts.

The trust revealed yesterday it had already shed 12 posts across the organisation through voluntary redundancy, early retirement and non-filling of vacancies.

But a spokesman said that “with regret” it was now proposing compulsory redundancies at the Castle Museum in the Eye of York.

He said it wanted to “remove” four part-time curatorial posts and two support posts as part of a whole new approach to curatorial work.

“For the next few years, the work will be project-led as the trust makes investments in new areas and creates new exhibitions,” he said.

He said the trust had been a great success story since its creation in 2002, and was now far less dependent on public funding than it had been, having increased its income from both admissions and commercial activity.

The spokesman added: “However, the trust is not immune to the cuts in public spending. The Museums Libraries and Archives council has been abolished. The MLA funded much of the trust’s work, with grants of more than £500,000 per year.

“Furthermore, the trust anticipates a revised settlement from City of York Council when our funding agreement is renewed in 2013.”

He said that to deal with such challenges, it had reviewed its operations and made savings in various ways.

In deciding where compulsory redundancies should be made, it had reviewed the whole organisation in the context of its ambitious plans for future development. “The trust is determined to deliver these developments to protect the long-term sustainability of the museums in its care.”

He said the full-time posts of head curator, head of collections and curator of history at the museum would remain unchanged.

“The trust is now in a process of consultation with the staff concerned and so we cannot comment any further at the moment.”

A spokeswoman for the Unison union said…/was unavailable for comment.