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By investing to make the nine council-run sites into better visitor attractions, the organisation reached 1.7 million  people - a 23% increase on last year, and almost five times as many as in 2004 when records began.

The museum, which exhibits local artwork and historic artefacts related to waterways and boating, has implemented "various cost-cutting measures", but the charity's trustees have now called in the receivers as they "do not want the position to get any worse.”

The loss-making bistro at the Greenock venue may be shut down as management seeks to overcome a cash crisis that has threatened the future of the whole organisation.

The town’s five-year plan for culture, The Fire Within, follows consultation with experts and local cultural organisations. Wigan Council's Chief Executive Alison McKenzie-Folan said the document had been written “for the people, by the people”. The authority has previously announced its intention to bid for up to £2m from Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme.

The site-wide masterplans include a £19m upgrade and expansion of the venue's existing performance spaces and an integrated creative hub, featuring commercial enterprises and offices that will help secure its long-term financial resilience.

A mural featuring the journalist, who was shot dead last month, is among the displays included in the city’s Hit the North Street Art Festival this year. A spray-painted image of McKee, by artist Emma Blake, appears alongside the content of a letter she wrote to her 14-year-old self.

At the request of the artist, the gallery will place sheets over the artwork, which depicts one of the five pillars of Islam in Arabic script, juxtaposed with images of nude women in the style of the US flag. Calls from some visitors for the paintings to be removed were rejected.

Street performers will be limited to 45-minute performances with a “full and varied repertoire” and will be unable to perform in the same location twice in one day, under new rules drawn up by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. This follows a five-fold increase in complaints about buskers since 2014.