The worrying trend of declining visitor numbers at Crich Tramway Village, which has been apparent for several years now, has led to the museum management having to make some difficult decisions recently. It has been decided that the level of paid staff was unsustainable, and therefore a major restructure has taken place, with three senior staff being laid off.<\/p>\n
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Perhaps most surprising is the news that Museum Curator Glynn Wilton is one of the three people to have been made redundant. Instead, a number of posts have effectively been merged together, with the curatorial department now in the control of Laura Waters, who has been heavily involved with the Society’s archives in a professional role\u00a0for a number of years. The other changes involve positions relating to management, education\u00a0and marketing. The result is that three new posts have replaced a previous six, which should save the museum a considerable amount of money, no doubt necessary thanks to the appointment of a General Manager earlier this year. Indeed, it is presumed that this has led to the restructuring taking place.<\/p>\n
Whilst some people have argued for some time now that the museum has become too reliant on paid staff and that highly paid management roles in particular could be reduced, the recent redundancies certainly set alarm bells ringing and give a clear message that all is not well at Crich. Hopefully the museum will be able to keep playing to its strengths, particularly the dedicated volunteer workforce, to ensure that the visitor experience does not suffer too greatly if further cutbacks prove necessary. It has already been well document that the workshop budget has been slashed this year, and work on trams which are not funded by external sources appears to have dried up in the last few years. This could be a major worry if trams continue to be withdrawn at a higher rate than overhauls are carried out, and whilst Crich boast a far larger operating fleet than any other UK museum tramway, it is hoped that this will not decline too much in the years ahead.<\/p>\n
Another area of concern, is that a number of this year’s special events have been very poorly patronised. The recent ‘Capital Weekend’ was, according to several regular staff and visitors, not noticeably busier than a normal summer weekend, and the ‘1950s Rock & Roll Weekend’ was also rather quiet. The annual events programme is now being reviewed and it is likely that some of the less popular events will not be returning in 2014, as the time and expense taken to put on some events is not proving worthwhile. Hopefully the opportunity will be taken to introduce some new special events rather than merely reducing the programme, as it is perfectly possible that in some cases, low attendance figures may be a result of the fact that most events have been repeated for several years without many new additions. The 50th anniversary of electric tram operation at Crich next July is certainly a milestone well worth celebrating, and hopefully this will be fully exploited to encourage enthusiasts and the general public alike to visit any events held to mark this occasion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The worrying trend of declining visitor numbers at Crich Tramway Village, which has been apparent for several years now, has led to the museum management having to make some difficult decisions recently. It has been decided that the level of … Continue reading