Conservative-run Hampshire County Council have admitted they plan to sell off our museums, art centres and cultural services.

Hampshire County Council plan to handover control of these vital services to a ‘Trust’, the Hampshire Solent Cultural Trust. Local people will no longer have a say on how our museums and art centres are run. Many fear that this move will put them at risk of more funding cuts, and even closure.

As a community we’ve fought hard to stop Conservative cuts to our local services. This news is yet another bitter blow to Andover. The Conservative County Council have ignored what local people have said and carried on regardless, cutting services while throwing taxpayers’ money down the drain funding their own vanity projects. The museum sell-off proposal follows news that the county council is set to shed another 60 jobs from libraries, museums and community services on top of the plan to axe another 165 posts in adult social care.

Everyone knows times are hard and councils need to tighten their belts, but while making these cuts Hampshire Conservatives have stashed a staggering £300 million in the county bank! That money is just sitting in their reserves while they cut services that hit the most vulnerable people in our society.

I want to see less waste and more resources going to the frontline services we all rely on.