TRADE union bosses have revealed they raised concerns about the financial stability of Hampshire Cultural Trust (HCT) when council workers first joined the charity.

It comes as the organisation has just finished consulting staff over job loses following a reduction in local authority grant money.

A number of staff at HCT, which manages museums and culturally important artifacts in the county, have left the organisation voluntarily.

Union representatives added there were no compulsory redundancies. HCT could not confirm the exact number of staff who had left yet as the recruitment process for newly formed positions is still ongoing.

Speaking about his concerns, David Anderson, branch secretary at Hampshire Unison, said: “The vast majority of employees were employed by HCC (Hampshire County Council) when the trust was first set up.

“The proposals were to move from HCC contracts to HCT contracts.

“I advised that there was a pitfall because they were very reliant on income generation from outside sources.

"A lot of funding came from Heritage Lottery grants. I did raise concerns at the time.”

As previously reported, specialist roles at venues such as Andover Museum and Museum of the Iron Age, run by HCT, could be replaced in favour of digital investment.

The trust has argued wider changes would “lead to rich and engaging experiences for our customers”.

The trust was set up in 2014 to run facilities previously operated by HCC and Winchester City Council.

Responding to the claims, a HCT spokeswoman said: “HCT have had no issues with unions since the trust was launched in November 2014.

“We have a number of current, ongoing projects with Heritage Lottery funding which support our work with communities across Hampshire and we plan to secure further funding in the future.”