A REPORT hoping to find ways to save money in the face of further budget cuts in Monmouthshire, is going to cost £30,000.

Approved by county council cabinet members last week, the 'critical' report will examine how services are delivered.

In the face of budget cuts of up to 4.3 per cent, Monmouthshire County Council's (MCC) cabinet said unless they reviewed the delivery of services, then they would begin to disappear.

The Shire Hall, Chepstow Museum, Caldicot Castle and the Nelson Museum in Monmouth were some of the 'valuable assets' listed by the cabinet.

Deputy leader Bob Greenland said: "Museums add £1.25 million to the local economy every year and are a valuable asset.

"Budget pressures mean if we carry on the way we are now, then these services would decline.

"They deserve a good future and we need to find a new and right model for delivery of cultural services here in Monmouthshire."

Leader Peter Fox said: "It is absolutely right that we find a new way to sustain the cultural services. If we can find the right model then we've got to go for it.

"I don't like the idea of commissioning work because it costs money, but it is absolutely appropriate to invest sensibly in that. I fully endorse the report."

Funds will be drawn from the Invest to Redesign reserve with a view to the work being completed and commissioned within a six month time frame ready for implementation in 2015/ 16.

Labour leader Dimitri Batrouni called the spend of £30,000 "an admission of failure" by MCC.

He said: "We have already spent close to £45,000 on private consultants for various projects to do with museums, including a report into the 'future of cultural services'.

"Now we are paying for them again, but this time the Tories are asking them what's the best way the council can offload our museums."

Councillor Greenland added: "To say we have spent £45,000 on private consultants is grossly misleading but sadly typical of the Labour group.

"£1,200 was for an update on a 2007 report. Otherwise almost all this money was to deliver specific projects such as the highly successful Vintage Vision exhibition.

"The money was paid to specialist contractors, conservators and the like. The vast majority of it was grant funded for specific exhibitions and spent locally."