New museum location to be announced 'within weeks'

14 hours ago

Eleanor Lawson,West Midlandsand

Ed James,BBC Radio WM

News image — Walsall Leather Museum's home is being sold to Walsall College and will relocate to a new building

LDRS The exterior of a leather museum, showing a red brick building, and a smaller building attached to it with its front wall made completely of glass. — Walsall Leather Museum's home is being sold to Walsall College and will relocate to a new building

The new location of a museum which is due to be relocated amid public backlash is to be announced "within weeks".

Walsall Leather Museum will move to a new building under regeneration plans announced by Walsall Council in September 2025, as its current building is being sold to the council to provide support for students with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).

The move has proved controversial, with a petition against the plans attracting 3,300 signatures.

Speaking to BBC Radio WM on Wednesday, Walsall Council leader Mike Bird said the new location for the museum would be announced in about "six to eight weeks".

Bird said the information was currently commercially confidential because a deal was still being negotiated.

However, he said a final offer had been made to the building's owners on Tuesday.

Addressing the controversy over the sale, Bird added: "Special educational needs is a priority of mine and the building that will be vacated will be used for that purpose.

"It cost us £17.57 per head for every person that visited and that's 8,000 people over three years.

"At the end of the day my job is to look after the majority of the people in Walsall, not the minority."

Walsall Council A man wearing a blue shirt and a green tie. He sits at a brown table and there is a bookcase in the background. He is smiling and looking to his left. — Council leader Mike Bird said the building was "an old leather factory, it's got no heritage at all"

The existing building on Littleton Street West is part of a historical Victorian factory complex and has been displaying artefacts since it opened in 1988.

A caller in to Radio WM told Bird: "My concern is that you're planning to close [it] without any future plans set in stone for it to move.

"Honestly Send students really need good places to receive their education but this is a heritage building."

Bird replied: "It's an old leather factory, it's got no heritage at all."

In the same interview, when asked if the museum was a part of the history and heritage of the town, he said it was.

Leather designer Lauren Broxton, who has been campaigning to save the museum, previously said about the decision: "It displays blatant disregard for heritage via the tokenistic use of some of the most vulnerable in society to justify their aims."

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