THE £15m Titanic museum planned for Southampton may require a public subsidy to run, the Daily Echo can reveal.

The admission by council leaders comes as figures obtained by the Echo show taxpayers are paying out £5 to subsidise each visitor to the city’s loss-making Maritime Museum.

The city council plans to replace The Town Quay Road museum with a new Sea City Museum next to the Civic Centre in time for the centenary of the Titanic disaster in April 2012.

But leisure boss Councillor John Hannides said that too may need a subsidy to run.

“In the modelling that has been put forward there are revenue implications that might need some form of public subsidy,” he said, although added it depended on visitor numbers.

Figures for the Maritime Museum show visitors have plummeted by a third in three years leaving the council with losses of £529,771.

The museum, hosted in the city’s medieval Wool House, cost the taxpayer £160,852 in 2008/9 – £4.71 per visitor. The council presently charges adults £2.50 for entry and £1.50 for children over seven.

Cllr Hannides admitted the level of subsidy was “clearly too high”

and said efforts would be made to attract more visitors.

He added: “It underlines the need for us to have a museum that can do justice to our rich maritime history.

Clearly the size of the Wool House is a major limitation”

The council is considering selling off the Wool House, one of the oldest buildings in the city, for a “suitable alternative use”.

Mark Wallace from the Taxpayers’Alliance said: “This fall in visitor numbers is disastrous and has resulted in a severe financial drain being placed on council tax payers.”

Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Adrian Vinson said: “It’s to be hoped if and when the new Sea City Museum comes on stream there will be a revival of interest in Southampton’s maritime history.”

Labour leisure spokesman Derek Burke blamed the drop in visitors on overcharging and said all city museums and libraries should be free. He added: “The Maritime Museum is one of the main attractions we’ve got. I’ve seen people walk up and turn away when they found out they’ve got to pay.”

Cllr Burke said he accepted Labour’s policy would cost the council more money but said: “The more people we attract, the more they do other things in the city.”