THE way forward for an ailing museum is in the hands of a local enterprise group under the umbrella of a new trust.

That is the promised solution for Cogges Farm Museum, at Witney, as the owners,Oxfordshire County Council, look to step down and bring in new ideas. Although visitor numbers are up this year, the county has been losing around £250,000 annually. The Cogges Community Enterprise Group (CEG) has been selected to help give a fresh start, with two other commercial bids sidelined as unviable without major investment.

Nevertheless, the council will be asked to stump up

£320,000, spread over two years, to give a kick start from April 2010. Details of the arrangement, which has yet to be ratified by the council executive, were announced at a public meeting on the future of the museum at St Mary’s church,. Cogges, on Tuesday evening last week.

Jim Couchman, the council’s cabinet member for social and community services, said: “There is no easy solution to the future of Cogges.

“Neither of the commercial company proposals has offered something which we think is really viable without significant investment.

“We have been very inspired by the vision of the Cogges Community Enterprise Group and would like to progress that.”

The new trust will take over the management – independent of the council – with the enterprise group working alongside.

Plans for the arrangement are already in their early stages. CEG has a steering group of five people, including freelance arts consultant Janine Charles, of The Green, Freeland. She welcomed the council’s choice of their bid, but wants to see the small print on how the new trust will work.

She told the Witney Gazette: “We are delighted.

“We came up with some imaginative ideas, and the key words are community enterprise. “We will, however, have to see how this unfolds, how the trust is formed and who is in it.”

Just over a year ago, the council did not rule out the possibility of closing the museum. But following a protest campaign, including the support of Witney MP David Cameron, it set up a project board to find a way forward.

The council will continue running Cogges through next year, but at a reduced budget, with some staff redundancies and a shorter open season.

Mr Couchman added that the new set-up was “not an easy solution”, because the trust would need at least two years to get going – hence the back-up of council funding at £160,000 a year.