Because You’re NOT Worth It…

The average donation from visitors to Bristol's £27 million flagship museum M shed is just nine pence.

I guess they weren’t impressed?

That average of 9p a head is way below the recommended donation of £2 per person.

Even for a family of four that's less than 50p in total.

Well, who ‘recommended’ £2 per person? Especially since Hull Bristol residents had already had their pockets picked for this carbuncle:

So far, the 187,000 tax payers in Bristol have already paid roughly £64 each towards the cost of the museum, as the council put £12 million towards the construction costs.

The £27 million total is considerably more than the £19 million the project was expected to cost in 2007, although part of this extra expense was down to redesign of the original idea for the site.

Was there ever a council-run project that didn’t go over budget and over timescale?

It’s only taxpayer’s cash, right?

The original fundraising target was around £2.6 million. The council had raised £860,000 of this from a number of grants, including £250,000 from Imperial Tobacco, £50,000 from The Friends of Bristol Museum and The Friends of Bristol Art Gallery.

So, one grant from the eeeeeeevil Big Tobacco (and you have to wonder what they thought they’d get out of it in return?) and two from museum-lovers? While the public response was a giant ‘Meh!’…

A number of Evening Post correspondents have raised concerns about the costs involved with the museum.

Jane Jenkins said: "M shed is not the success the council claims – something that cost so much, took so long and delivered so little cannot be counted a success.

"There are legitimate concerns over its ongoing running costs.

"There is a real risk pride and arrogance will compound expensive past errors. We have rarely been told the truth about this museum project, but we are paying for it."

Quite! But not paying by dint of putting your hands directly in your pockets, no. Others are doing that for you!

And John Prentice said: "If it was such a great success, such a brilliant new museum, why did the biggest private support come from a tobacco company?

"People vote with their cash, so what are the levels of voluntary donations from the visiting public? Not much I bet."

About 9 pence. Bargain, eh?