Lancaster City Council has issued Lancashire County Council with 24 months notice to end the present agreement where the county council runs its museums with the aim of providing better value for money to local residents.
Currently, the city council pays Lancashire County Council around £545,300 to run the City Museum, Maritime Museum and the Cottage Museum, but while discussions have taken place in an attempt to renegotiate the terms of the agreement, which is due to end in 2013, they have not so far progressed.
On Tuesday, the city council’s Cabinet agreed to give 24 months to end the partnership and use that period to examine options for bringing the running of the museums back in house and making savings.
The decision will kick start a review of options to run the museums more efficiently, to make sure that the city council is achieving value for money.
Coun Stuart Langhorn, leader of Lancaster City Council and chair of Cabinet, said: “At present the city council pays the county council to run the three museums but has little say in how the service is delivered.
“We need to ensure that we achieve the best value for money we can for our residents and by serving notice to end the current partnership agreement I hope that we will be able to do just that.”
The Museums Service in Lancaster has been the subject of a partnership agreement between Lancashire County Council and Lancaster City Council since 2003 and was initially for a 10 year period.
By serving two years notice the partnership will end one year earlier than intended on 31st March 2012.