Have your say over Leicester City Council’s plans for a new museum cafe

Plans to create a new cafe at Leicester’s iconic museum have been branded a waste of money by opposition politicians.

The Labour-led city council wants to spend around £850,000 refurbishing the cafe at Leicester Art Gallery and Museum in the now-closed Wild Space gallery, which displays taxidermy exhibits.

However, a group of six Green, Lib Dem and Tory councilors launched a motion to stop the scheme, calling it “unnecessary”.

The council said the move would generate rental income from a cafe operator.

Concerned councilors wrote to the council “appealing” the cafe’s decision, sparking a debate about it at a scrutineering meeting on Monday.

In a report, they said: “Despite the council being in a truly diabolical financial state, the Labor leadership still seems determined to waste millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on ill-conceived vanity projects.

“Most people would agree with us when we say that a new council cafe is not a priority, especially as the council is on the brink of bankruptcy and can’t even afford to support adventure playgrounds or SEND transport .”

They said there used to be a “perfectly good” cafe at the museum, but the authority closed it down.

They added: “The Labor council must stop wasting public money on useless projects like this proposed new cafe.”

A council spokesman said: “The cost to close and refurbish the old Wild Space gallery and move the cafe into the space will be around £850,000.

“This will allow us to create a self-contained cafe with access from New Walk and means we will be able to open the cafe to the public when the museum is closed, which is not currently an option.

“Most of the development would be paid for by the chosen operator and the council would receive income from them.”

The authority said the project was part of a wider £3.9m refurbishment of the Victorian museum, co-funded by the Arts Council, which would also reveal some of its historic skylights and columns.