Scotland Street school museum will close through the winter months in a money saving move by Glasgow City Council (GCC). 

The museum, while still open to booked tours and school visits, has been closed to the general public since the start of this month. Earlier in the year the GCC announced that six museums in the city would close on Mondays at the same time they revealed a council tax freeze for residents.

The Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed building has the lowest visitor numbers of all Glasgow’s museums, at 60,000 visitors per year. Visitor numbers are greatest between April and September.

The closure has provoked criticism from opposition Councillors who say they were not informed of the plans. SNP leader John Mason said, ‘The Council is now very good at telling us the good news, but we seem to get all the bad news in this kind of piecemeal way.’

Liberal Democrat leader Dr Christopher Mason added that he was ‘astonished’ by the news, saying, ‘As far as I know, nothing has been said to councilors about this.’