Closing The People’s Museum would be cultural vandalism - Susan Dalgety

But while the city’s history can boast more than its fair share of aristocrats, politicians and bankers, it was built by the blood, sweat and tears of its working people.

That is why the People’s Story Museum is such an important part of the city’s cultural scene.

It was opened in 1989 by a Labour administration that had taken majority control of the city council for the first time ever in 1984.

Located in the historic Canongate Tolbooth, it chronicles the lives, not of the occupants of the New Town, but of the ordinary people of Edinburgh.

It gives a unique insight into working class culture from the 18th century through to the late 20th century, using oral history to tell the full story about Scotland’s capital and not just tales of the well-to-do.

I particularly love the collection of campaign banners the museum has collected over the years, from Votes for Women to anti-apartheid.

And the displays depicting, among other things, a bookbinder’s workshop and a wartime kitchen are fascinating, offering visitors and local residents alike a glimpse of all our yesterdays.

Unfortunately, the People’s Story Museum has been closed for the past few weeks because of staff shortages, and it is now facing an even longer shutdown because of the pressures on the council’s budget.

Officials have earmarked the museum to close until April next year, as well as reducing the opening hours of the Queensferry Museum in an effort to save around £205,000. The city council is currently facing a budget shortfall of £27 million.

Councillors could not agree a way forward last week so the matter will now be debated at the next full council meeting on 7 November, which gives campaigners plenty of time to drum up public support to keep the museum open.

One of the leading voices in the campaign is ex-councillor and MP, George Kerevan, who was one of the Labour councillors who set up the museum.

“I am incandescently angry because it’s a trivial amount of money they’re trying to save,” he said last week during a protest outside the City Chambers.

He's right. In the grand scheme of things, closing the People’s Story for seven months will not make a huge dent in the council’s deficit. And the cost of closing it far outweighs any savings.

But closure would send out a clear message that the ordinary people of this city don’t matter. That their stories are irrelevant when compared to those of the city’s more famous residents, dead or alive.

In this 900th year of our city’s history, it would be an extreme case of cultural vandalism for the city council to shut down the only space dedicated to telling the people’s story.

In fact, in this milestone year, which also marks the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, a stone’s throw away from the museum, the city council should be finding ways to invest more in the collection to bring it up right up to date, not toying with the idea of closing it.