4:10pm Tuesday 14th August 2007
By Sarah Cosgrove
OPENING hours at William Morris Gallery and Vestry House Museum will not be cut until next year, but the future of employees remains uncertain.
Waltham Forest Council planned to slash the opening times to just weekends and limited hours on Thursdays and Fridays, to save £43,000. But the council admitted last Wednesday that this will not go ahead until January 2008.
The authority insists it will still make the required saving this year, but declined to explain how. So current staff will now have to wait even longer to find out who will get the reduced number of jobs available.
World-renowned Morris expert Peter Cormack, who has given 30 years of his working life to the gallery, is among them. His position as gallery curator will cease to exist under the new working structure.
A council spokesman said: "Staff and unions have been consulted on the new structure and we are in the process of recruiting to fill vacant positions."
But chairman of the Friends of William Morris Gallery, Martin Stuchfield, said it was a disgraceful way to treat staff.
"Something needs to happen, we can't go on fudging the issue. We still don't know what's going to happen to the staff and they are under great stress," he said.
"Can you imagine how Peter Cormack feels knowing that he's probably out of a job? He's had to face that since January when this all started."
New cabinet member for Leisure, Arts and Culture, Cllr Geraldine Reardon, defended the council's decision.
She said: "We are confident the new structure will encourage more people than ever before to come and see our fantastic museum and learn more about the life and work of William Morris."
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