Oxford residents will once again be able to enter the Museum of Oxford for free under a three-month pilot scheme, following a year of criticism over the council’s decision to introduce admission charges for the first time in the museum’s history.
The scheme, approved by the cabinet at Oxford City Council, will run from 04 January to 31 March. Residents will need to provide proof that they live within the city to qualify for free entry, while visitors from outside Oxford will continue to pay £4.
The council will consider whether to make the arrangement permanent through its budget-setting process. However, the museum’s financial pressures have not been fully resolved, and the council is exploring additional ways to raise funds.
Council leader Susan Brown, who was in charge when the original decision to introduce charges was made, said the authority had always regretted having to charge local residents.
Describing the return to free admission as an opportunity to put things right, she said: “People should go there, and now nobody in Oxford will have an excuse not to go there because it will be free again.”
The original charges were introduced to help address a funding shortfall at the museum, which receives a subsidy from the city council. But the decision prompted a public backlash, including a petition and protests organised by campaign group Save Our Museum.
The council has also acknowledged the impact on visitor numbers and donations. Paula Redway, the authority’s culture and community development manager, previously said that donations had “plummeted” following the introduction of entry fees, while visitor numbers had fallen after the decision was announced in October.
Save Our Museum also conducted its own research and reported a decline in footfall, arguing that charging for a small local museum put it at a disadvantage in a city with several internationally recognised museums offering free admission.
Avril Alexander, a spokesperson for the campaign, welcomed the decision to restore free entry for residents.
“The council made a massive mistake in introducing entry fees to a small local museum in a city full of world-renowned free ones,” she said. “We’re glad that Oxford residents’ voices have been heard and those fees are now being scrapped – hopefully for good.”
The group wants the council to go further by committing to cover the museum’s full operating costs, allowing staff to concentrate on rebuilding visitor numbers, donations and public confidence.
“We hope to see a continuation and strengthening of what the museum does best: telling the many stories of Oxford and its diverse communities, and engaging local residents in discovering more about our history,” Ms Alexander said.
The council believes that restoring free entry for residents could also help attract paying visitors. Cabinet member for finance Ed Turner said the authority had listened to the response to the charges and was acting on what it had learned.
He suggested that Oxford residents might bring friends and family from elsewhere to the museum, creating an opportunity to increase both free and paid admissions.
Brown described the wider plan for the museum as ambitious but achievable. Alongside the proposed return to free entry for residents, it includes fundraising initiatives such as an ‘adopt an object’ scheme and a membership-style Friends of the Museum programme.
The three-month pilot will test whether free access for local people can be restored while helping the museum build a more sustainable financial future. Whether that arrangement becomes permanent will depend on the council’s budget decision, leaving the museum’s long-term funding unresolved.
Reporting contribution by Isabella Harris, Local Democracy Reporter (LDR) for Oxfordshire, covering local politics, council meetings and planning decisions across six councils in the county.
