Lauren Broxton talks about the prospects of losing Walsall Leather Museum and how she felt the campaign groups hadn't been consulted properly as protesters make their voices heard outside Walsall Town Hall.
00:00Okay, so tell me what's brought you out here tonight.
00:03So, over the course of the last six months we've been engaging with Horsall Council
00:08following the resort that we had in February to haul the plans to St Horsall Leather Museum in its current location.
00:16And yesterday plans were announced very last minute that plans were going to be signed off this evening by Council bosses.
00:25So essentially we've had about 24 hours to get everyone back together, to get scrutiny back up
00:31and to raise awareness that we think this is an awful decision.
00:36Public have not been consulted properly on it and our heritage has been treated awfully.
00:44There's a level of outrage I can tell right now.
00:47What do you think you can get from this protest? What impact would you like to make from this protest?
00:53So, as I said, we have consulted with Council leaders and we have put proposal after proposal forward.
01:01We have spent the last six months rallying support of industry, academia, education
01:07and we still feel like we're not being taken seriously and transparency is not being upheld.
01:13So, really I think we'd like to see that the public is properly consulted on this and that they have a choice in heritage that far predates Horsall Council.
01:27And it is part of Warsaw's heritage as well as a museum.
01:29Absolutely. We have a 400-year-old heritage here in leather, in leather work, in laurenery.
01:35And I just think it's too precious to be treated so half-handable basically.
01:43And what's been the level of support you've had from the public so far?
01:47So, over the last six to seven months since we started the initial campaign, the support we've had from the public has been amazing.
01:53We've had people from as far away as the Royal College of Art, livery companies, educational bodies really, really getting behind us.
02:02as well as the local community. And we just want to be here to represent the public feeling that this is really an outrage.
02:12From industry, academia and education bodies, massive show of support from the community
02:19and still Warsaw Council are not liaising properly with the constituencies and the residents that they are meant to serve.
02:26So, we're here today to show them that you can announce things very last minute
02:31and we're still going to turn up and make a noise because our heritage is far too important for us to just give up on like this.
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