Stoke-on-Trent City Council has granted planning permission for a £34m redevelopment of Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton’s (WWRD) factory complex in Barlaston, which will involve an upgrade of the museum’s front-of-house facilities and viewing galleries, and a new visitor centre and retail space.
The proposals also include improving archive storage facilities to offer permanent visitor access to the reserve collection.
Anthony Jones, WWRD’s chief financial officer, said the museum would remain a separate legal entity, and that the proposals would be in addition to the existing facilities, which opened in 2008 with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The WWRD’s submission to the council’s development management committee read: “The benefits associated with the enhanced visitor experience are also an important consideration from an economic perspective, with the development proposing to replace the existing under-performing tourist attraction [where numbers have declined to about 32,000 a year].
“It is anticipated that annual visitor numbers will increase to more than 160,000, along with their associated expenditure.”
But the museum’s collection remains under threat of sale to meet a £135m pension deficit inherited from the Wedgwood Pension Plan Trustee Limited, which went into administration in 2009.
Jones said: “While our plans do not address the complex issue of the future of the collection, we remain confident that it will remain at Barlaston.”
Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund, which is involved with the campaign to keep the collections on display, said: “Putting the museum and its Unesco-recognised collection at the heart of redevelopment plans could see many thousands of people visit the site each year – a hugely exciting prospect.”
Work on the revamp is set to start next month and should be finished by Easter 2015.
The proposals also include improving archive storage facilities to offer permanent visitor access to the reserve collection.
Anthony Jones, WWRD’s chief financial officer, said the museum would remain a separate legal entity, and that the proposals would be in addition to the existing facilities, which opened in 2008 with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The WWRD’s submission to the council’s development management committee read: “The benefits associated with the enhanced visitor experience are also an important consideration from an economic perspective, with the development proposing to replace the existing under-performing tourist attraction [where numbers have declined to about 32,000 a year].
“It is anticipated that annual visitor numbers will increase to more than 160,000, along with their associated expenditure.”
But the museum’s collection remains under threat of sale to meet a £135m pension deficit inherited from the Wedgwood Pension Plan Trustee Limited, which went into administration in 2009.
Jones said: “While our plans do not address the complex issue of the future of the collection, we remain confident that it will remain at Barlaston.”
Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund, which is involved with the campaign to keep the collections on display, said: “Putting the museum and its Unesco-recognised collection at the heart of redevelopment plans could see many thousands of people visit the site each year – a hugely exciting prospect.”
Work on the revamp is set to start next month and should be finished by Easter 2015.
