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Petition to save the Falconer Museum


By Staff Reporter

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The collection upstairs at the Falconer Museum.
The collection upstairs at the Falconer Museum.

A PETITION to re-open a local tourist attraction has been signed by more than 1200 people.

Zoe Archer, who started online petition Save the Falconer Museum! wants Moray Council to reverse their cost-cutting decision to close the 150-year-old institution permanently and open it as usual this Spring.

She explained: "The Falconer Museum is such a loved and valued community resource in the heart of Forres - nobody wants it to close! It would be devastating to lose the Moray-wide service. The loss to learning would be huge if it closed. It would also have a negative impact on the local economy to lose an internationally important museum, and also, to lose the Tourist Information office within the museum.

Zoe lives nearby and enjoys taking her children to visit, especially the holiday craft sessions.

She added: "We will keep the petition open until the end of January and then deliver the petition to the council."

The museum closed for the winter for the final time in October. Its original collection was left to Forres in 1856 by Hugh Falconer, a scientific contemporary and friend of Charles Darwin. Donations over the many years since mean it now has 50,000 artefacts – far in excess of what it actually on display. Trustees and custodians Friends of the Falconer Museum were unable to prevent owners Moray Council from closing the fully accredited five star visitor attraction after it was included in the local authority's budget cuts for 2019/20.

Chairman of Friends of the Falconer Museum, Dr John R Barrett, is grateful for the community's support but scathing of the efforts of local councillors to find a way to keep it open.

He said: "The petition, which is growing magnificently, was started by a concerned member of public who was shocked to learn of the threatened closure while attending a family fun day in the museum.

"We are delighted to discover that they have so many friends in the community. It is a pity that we have no friends in the council."

Local councillor Claire Feaver agreed that the museum will be missed by many and explained the local authority's decision.

She said: "It’s impressive and heartening that so many people are supporting the Falconer. Losing such an important part of the town’s historic fabric is a dismal prospect. I can’t help reflecting that our Victorian forebears had the vision and energy to create the museum and put together its collections, while we in 2020 are struggling to even keep it open.

"At the end of the day, councillors are elected representatives and I’m sure that my colleagues will listen to such clearly expressed views, but we also have a legal responsibility to deliver a balanced budget.

"I will be working to try to reconcile these two things in the hope that we can continue to keep the Falconer open, while at the same time trying to encourage all councillors to keep up the pressure on the Scottish Government to give us a fair funding deal, the lack of which is the fundamental reason behind this difficult situation."

Friends of the Falconer Museum vice chairwoman Ruth Fishkin is delighted with the petition.

She said: "It is a serious wrong to deprive the next generation of the rich legacy we have been given. And it’s not necessary to handle the current budget squeeze by cutting off Moray’s nose to spite its face. I understand that the Moray Council are desperate to save money and that most of this situation is due to the huge cuts to funding from central UK government in the past decade. However what I’ve seen of the numbers tells me that the very small amount they will save by closing the museum and the museum service will end up costing more than it saves."

Sign the petition at http://chng.it/8kQfGRXHXt



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