A TRUST which runs popular tourist attractions including the Museum of Somerset - will see funding cut over the next five years.

The South West Heritage Trust runs the Museum of Somerset in Taunton, the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury and the Brick and Tile Museum in Bridgwater, as well as helping to maintain archives in Taunton, Exeter and Barnstaple.

The trust receives annual funding from Somerset County Council, which is set for a five-year period and helps to pay for the upkeep of the premises and exhibits, as well as funding the equivalent of around 75 full-time staff.

But over the next five years the grant which the council gives to the trust will drop in real terms, meaning funding will have to sourced from elsewhere.

The funding levels up to 2023/24 were agreed at a meeting of the council’s cabinet in Taunton on Monday morning (June 10).

Jon Doyle, the council’s service manager for community infrastructure, said the trust would receive a total of £8,133,440 over the next five years – or £1,626,688 per year.

This is lower than the previous five-year block – a total of £8,440,990 – and does not take account of inflation.

He said in his written report: “The renewed funding agreement will be a set annual amount over the five-year period, and will not be subject to inflationary increases.”

Mr Doyle said the funding would provide “a sustainable base” for the trust while also saving the council money.

He added: “This will deliver a real terms saving to the county council and will encourage the trust to focus on commercial activities to generate higher levels of unrestricted income.”

Council leader David Fothergill said the trust was “held in high regard” and “has a strong business case” to cover the cost of all its activities over the coming years.

Councillor David Huxtable, cabinet member for adult social care, praised the trust’s work and said Somerset’s heritage had benefited after being taken out of direct council control.

He said: “Let’s not forget how we got here. We set up this trust in many ways to protect it from us politicians.

“For many years heritage was a poor relation – if there was a demand for education or social care, heritage wasn’t high up people’s priorities lists.

“They [the trust] have taken the financial envelope, they’ve widened it with their own efforts, and they’ve survived and flourished – and I think that’s a great credit to Tom Mayberry [the trust’s chief executive] and his team.

“We’re now asking them to go forward with a similar idea. I think we’re comfortable with the level of funding, and we look forward to the future.”

Around 320,000 people visited the trust’s museums in the first three years of its operation, as well as 30,000 children being given workshops and two million people accessing its online resources, according to the official trust business case.

The cabinet voted unanimously to approve the funding levels for the next five years.