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THE future of Cogges Manor Farm Museum is dependent on better marketing, senior county councillor David Robertson has said.

Already he has received suggestions about how to take the loss-making Witney museum forward, including a voluntary one to provide expertise.

Mr Robertson, deputy leader of the council which owns and manages the museum, lives in Witney and the museum is in his local ward.

He said he had received many suggestions about ways to improve the threatened museum following the revelation that it is running up a loss of £250,000 a year.

"Some of them are very helpful," he said. "My own view is that we should keep the museum the same, but with extra going on there.

"I wouldn't want it to become a theme park, but it needs better marketing. Among the suggestions I've received are things like a morning cafe for mums to meet, a gardening club, children's parties, renting it out to film and TV crews.

"I am following up one with a man who runs a local PR agency who says he will volunteer personally to bring new life to the museum. Local businesses could help in this way.

advertisement "We need to get some capital investment. All of this is worth a try. Cogges is lovely for those who know about it. But it costs £5.70 to get in and we need more than a few animals and a bit of milking."

Protests have been growing since it was revealed earlier this month that the county council was looking at measures to tackle the museum's financial situation.

The county council's leader Keith Mitchell has now added his voice to the debate over its future. He said its future was a priority - but stopped short of giving a cast iron guarantee that it would stay open. Writing in his council website blog, Mr Mitchell said the authority had been hit by a below inflation Government grant for 2008-9.

He added: "So now we come to working out the mathematics and analysing our priorities.

"One of the issues we'll have to look at is the much valued Cogges Farm Museum.

"We've all seen the publicity that has followed from the news that we're looking at its future.

"We understand why there has been such a reaction because we appreciate that Cogges is a part of the fabric of west Oxfordshire and a real gem. However, it is operating at a loss of almost £250,000 a year.

"No responsible authority could ever allow that to continue indefinitely and I'm sure that even those who are so heartfelt and vigorous in their defence of Cogges would understand that we have to make the sums stack up for it to have a viable future."

4:39pm Tuesday 11th December 2007

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