Llandudno Museum struggling to 'keep the lights on' due to 'astronomic' energy bills

A museum struggling to "keep the lights on" due to soaring energy bills has appealed to the public for help.

Llandudno Museum has issued an plea to the public to help raise money to safeguard the site's future.

The museum says that the rising price of energy has meant it's struggling to keep up with costs, and could be forced to close.

The museum is an independent charity which survives on grant funding but says its costs have quadrupled, and this no longer stretches far enough.

Director Dawn Lancaster said: "It is definitely a threat because at the moment our energy bills are in the region of £35,000 a year, which is astronomic.

"We can't turn everything off because we have to have stable conditions to maintain the artefacts in the building."

The museum is home to around 9,000 artefacts.

It reopened in 2022 after a £1.6m redevelopment scheme partly funded by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, with the remainder of the money coming mainly in grants from other charitable bodies, and an annual grant from Llandudno Town Council.

The museum aims to raise £80,000 by October to keep the lights on.

Judith Phillips, a trustee at the museum for 12 years, said "this is the worst crisis the museum has had to face" in that time.

She said if the museum is forced to close, the exhibits would "deteriorate" and could be "lost entirely to the people of this county."

Patrick Cunningham, a volunteer, said "this is the only place like this in Llandudno" and if it closed it would "leave a hole".

"This is a facility for Llandudno that is irreplaceable," he said. "Once it is lost it's gone forever."

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