A PETITION has been launched by the Friends of the Museum and Art Gallery to oppose the possibility of Apsley House being kept shut permanently.

The petition hosted online at Change.org was set up by Linda Kasmaty, the chairman of the friends organisation, urges the council to reopen the building as soon as it can. 

It says: “We support the call for the Swindon collection of modern British art and the museum collections to be retained on show in Apsley House until they can be moved to a new home where they are on show to the public. 

“We believe that the dispersal and mothballing of the collections would be highly damaging to Swindon’s bid for city status.

“We reject the recommendations in the cabinet member decision note and call for a further report to be produced setting out all the options for the future of the collections and of

Apsley House, for all funding opportunities to be investigated, and for a debate to be held in full council before any decisions are made.”

The petition is available online at Change.org – search for Swindon museum in the search box.

At the time of going to press more than 230 people have signed the petition.