The museum closed in 2023 due to safety concerns
Wirral Transport Museum is shut(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
A Merseyside museum closed for nearly three years is at the centre of a legal battle over £4.5m of public funding which was withdrawn by Wirral Council. The Wirral Transport Museum closed in April 2023 due to significant safety risks and there have been no recent updates on when or if it will reopen.
Big Heritage CIC took over the museum in 2023 and promised a major revamp endorsed by Wirral Council. However trams owned by the Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society were moved out in 2024 and an ongoing row over a 2025 decision has left its future in doubt.
The museum firm is currently in a legal dispute with the council over a decision in March 2025 to pull £4.5m set aside for a revamp of the museum, on Taylor Street in Birkenhead.
The ECHO understands the case was refused because Big Heritage missed the window to appeal the decision. The case could now go to the High Court.
The museum has now been closed for nearly three years(Image: Liverpool Echo/Colin Lane)
Big Heritage’s case, which went before the Manchester Administrative Court on January 8, argued the decision was ‘not lawful’ and a review commissioned by the council ‘was not independent’.
They accused former regeneration director Marcus Shaw of trying ‘to manufacture a basis on which [Big Heritage’s] grant could be reviewed’.
In the documents, it is also claimed council officers ‘deleted certain information’ and had access to copies of the review as it was developed.
Wirral Council said ‘there was no arguable unlawfulness in the decision’ and claims about council officers tainting reports were ‘without foundation’.
The local authority also said the claim by Big Heritage was not submitted on time, arguing it was a day late.
The Wirral Transport Museum features old buses and trams that used to run across Wirral(Image: Liverpool Echo/Colin Lane)
According to the council’s argument, a judge in October 2025 also ruled ‘the grounds were unarguable’ with ‘no proper evidential basis for a conclusion that the decision under challenge was affected by bias or bad motive’.
The court documents also showed the council ‘refutes in the strongest possible terms the wholly unsubstantiated allegation’ […] that ‘certain officers and councillors, including Marcus Shaw, the Council’s Director of Regeneration and Place, wished to rescind the grant of July 2024 and took pre-determined steps in bad faith to engineer the outcome they wanted’.
Regeneration officer Charlotte Carroll said the three month window to make a claim began with the decision, adding: “The fact that the claimant [Big Heritage] may have been seeking to explore other routes before resorting to litigation does not provide a justification for bringing the claim out of time, or grounds for extending time thereafter.”
Wirral Council, Big Heritage, and Marcus Shaw were approached for comment. The ECHO understands the case was refused on the grounds of the delay and Big Heritage’s request for an extension was refused, but the decision on January 8 has since been appealed.
Big Heritage operates the Western Approaches museum in Liverpool. It is also responsible for delivering the Battle of the Atlantic museum, a redevelopment of the U-boat Story museum in Woodside, Birkenhead.