SWINDON'S loss-making Steam museum is to bring in private sector troubleshooters in a bid to find savings.

The attraction has needed subsidies totalling £1.3 million since it opened in mid-2000.

This financial year alone, it is heading for a record loss of £565,000, compared with a loss of £515,000 in the last financial year.

Now Swindon Council is to commission private consultants to look at ways of stemming the flow of cash into Steam.

Coun Nick Martin (Con, Shaw and Nine Elms), chairman of the cross-party Scrutiny Commission, is behind the move.

He said: "The borough wants to keep the museum open but we've got to find a way of making it more viable. We have to look at staffing levels, opening times, parking and other issues.

"Once you've been there you don't go again because it's a static museum which doesn't change.

"There are a string of questions and we will be looking for ideas on how to increase visitor numbers and reduce costs."

He added that current estimates were that museum losses would continue to escalate to as much as £700,000 next year.

No budget has yet been set for the consultants but Coun Martin said: "If it costs £1,000 a day for 25 days it will be a good investment if it can stop the rot."

He said he anticipates the job being put out to tender next month.

A report compiled by council officers has suggested that one solution would be to turn Steam into a charitable trust.

The council cabinet member with responsibility for Steam, David Cox (Lab, Toothill), said: "Trust status is one of the options being looked at, to make the museum self financing.

"It would have tax advantages and it might also make people more inclined to support it because many are put off by council projects."

The museum, which celebrates the history of the Great Western Railway Works, opened in June 2000 at a cost of £13 million.

It was expected to draw about 250,000 visitors a year and need an annual council subsidy of £100,000.

But due to visitor numbers falling vastly short of the target, the museum, which employs the equivalent of 20 full-time staff, has become a costly financial burden for the council.

It has attracted only 250,000 visitors in total since it opened.

Museum manager Andrew Lovett said: "In 1995 when the museum was first planned a number of assumptions were made.

"Swindon was on the verge of major urban regeneration and gaining city status. Those things haven't happened yet.

"The market for museums and attractions generally has become much more competitive.

"A total of 79 major attractions opened in 2000 and some of those are pulling people away from us."

He added: "I think Steam has been an enormous success.

"The old railway museum was getting 30,000 visitors a year and we get two or three times that.

"We have won 12 national awards and last year we were the only UK attraction to get a commendation in the European Museum of the Year awards."