Claims that falling numbers of museum visits in Dundee are down to restricted opening hours at Mills Observatory have met an angry reaction.
There was opposition when plans were announced to end regular opening hours between April and September and instead have targeted opening for specific events and organised visits.
Those who argued the restricted hours would impact on visitor numbers were told this would not be the case.
Now Dundee’s museum visitor numbers are the lowest out of all Scottish cities and the 5.3% decline is being attributed to this decision.
Councillor Fraser Macpherson said: “I met with the director when the original proposal was made and assurances were made that there would not be any decline in overall numbers, so it is a bit surprising that this is now being given as the reason for this decline.”
He said there is a need for a complete rethink of how the observatory operates.
He said: “There are real issues about what we have to do with the Mills in the long term.”
Councillor Richard McCready said he also had issues with the downturn in museum visits being attributed to the observatory.
Before the restricted hours started in April, the Balgay Hill facility was Britain’s only full-time public observatory and the move to reduce opening hours was criticised by a number of groups.
Television personality Lorraine Kelly even spoke out in backing a campaign to save it.
Dundee City Council’s director of corporate services told councillors a 5% fall in visitors was not a significant drop and it is expected visitor numbers will recover over the rest of the year.
A report into the city council’s performance over the first three months of the financial year showed museum visits were 488 per 1,000 population in person.
This left the City of Discovery in fourth place compared to other Scottish cities, but the figures for the whole year are still better than the Scottish council average of 2,180.
The Mills Observatory is run by Dundee Leisure and Culture but is largely dependent on council subsidies and this year had to contend with a 25% funding cut.