The row is about how much the museum is costing the council - estimated to be approximately £1m since it opened in March 2001. Visitor numbers have halved from a high of 42,000 in 2001/02 to just 21,000 last year.
This is not the first time the museum has been in trouble. In December 2002, the council took over running the museum and made the director redundant.
Criticisms of the museum are being led by Liberal Democrat councillor Peter Chegwyn, who is also the chairman of the Gosport Museum Committee. He told Museums Journal that Explosion is 'a fantastic museum, but no-one is visiting it'.
He said the museum has been plagued by changes in management and that the museum's positioning, on the former ordnance yard at Priddy's Hard, was 'inaccessible'. The result is that the borough council is now subsidising each visit by £17.
'The problem is that it is too far away from heritage sites such as the Victory and Mary Rose on the other side of the harbour, and too far from the Submarine Museum in Gosport, which is proving more attractive,' Chegwyn said. 'If visitor numbers were going up I would not be complaining, but it seems that Explosion has limited appeal.'
Half the borough council is up for election on 4 May, including Chegwyn, but he denied his criticisms were politically motivated. 'In a nutshell, sooner or later Explosion will have to close because council-tax payers will not put up with this forever,' he said.
Conservative councillor Aleck Hayward defended Explosion saying that he believed the majority of councillors supported it. 'This is just pre-election politics. Explosion is a damn good museum,' he said. 'We accept that museums don't make money, just as schools and hospitals don't.'
He argued that the museum's financial position would improve as a major upmarket housing development and planned shops and bars on the Priddy's Hard heritage area were completed.
Last year, the council gave about £360,000 in subsidy to the museum, but some of this money simply moved from one part of the council to the other for accountancy purposes to do with the leasing of the building. A spokesman for the museum said that the annual operating budget was between £325,000 and £375,000 with a maximum of £230,000 coming from the council. Visitor services manager Marc Farrance, said he believed the future of the museum was positive.
'We need the building work around us to be finished and we could do with a period of stability after all the chops and changes of management,' he said. 'Once the housing development is complete in 2007, I think we will see things starting to really move forward.'
Jane Morris
This is not the first time the museum has been in trouble. In December 2002, the council took over running the museum and made the director redundant.
Criticisms of the museum are being led by Liberal Democrat councillor Peter Chegwyn, who is also the chairman of the Gosport Museum Committee. He told Museums Journal that Explosion is 'a fantastic museum, but no-one is visiting it'.
He said the museum has been plagued by changes in management and that the museum's positioning, on the former ordnance yard at Priddy's Hard, was 'inaccessible'. The result is that the borough council is now subsidising each visit by £17.
'The problem is that it is too far away from heritage sites such as the Victory and Mary Rose on the other side of the harbour, and too far from the Submarine Museum in Gosport, which is proving more attractive,' Chegwyn said. 'If visitor numbers were going up I would not be complaining, but it seems that Explosion has limited appeal.'
Half the borough council is up for election on 4 May, including Chegwyn, but he denied his criticisms were politically motivated. 'In a nutshell, sooner or later Explosion will have to close because council-tax payers will not put up with this forever,' he said.
Conservative councillor Aleck Hayward defended Explosion saying that he believed the majority of councillors supported it. 'This is just pre-election politics. Explosion is a damn good museum,' he said. 'We accept that museums don't make money, just as schools and hospitals don't.'
He argued that the museum's financial position would improve as a major upmarket housing development and planned shops and bars on the Priddy's Hard heritage area were completed.
Last year, the council gave about £360,000 in subsidy to the museum, but some of this money simply moved from one part of the council to the other for accountancy purposes to do with the leasing of the building. A spokesman for the museum said that the annual operating budget was between £325,000 and £375,000 with a maximum of £230,000 coming from the council. Visitor services manager Marc Farrance, said he believed the future of the museum was positive.
'We need the building work around us to be finished and we could do with a period of stability after all the chops and changes of management,' he said. 'Once the housing development is complete in 2007, I think we will see things starting to really move forward.'
Jane Morris
