More jobs will be axed at Tullie House if councillors agree to strip another £214,000 from their grant to the museum.

Closing the Carlisle attraction for one day a week is one of the actions that may be taken if management have to contend with a new wave of funding cuts.

City councillors are considering reducing the grant they give Tullie House by another £214,000 in the next financial year.

The implications of that move were set out to members of the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee yesterday.

Andrew Mackay, Tullie House’s head of collections and programming, revealed that up to eight members of staff could lose their jobs.

A draft business plan drawn up to cope with the cash loss proposes raising the price of a Tullie Card – which has 4,000 subscribers – from £1 to £7 by 2017 in a bid to bring in more money.

Mr Mackay is preparing to take charge of the museum and gallery when current director Hilary Wade leaves her post at the end of the year.

Councillors were told that six members of staff at the museum had already been made redundant when the council reduced funding by £250,000.

Tullie House is run by an independent trust, with the city council – which has to cut another £3.5m from its own budgets in the next three years – providing grant support.

Roger Cooke, chairman of the trust, said that a decision would be made on their business plan, which is still at the draft stage, on December 11.