Kendal Museum took a step towards a safer future this week when the leading body of South Lakeland District Council recommended paying £152,000 towards an upgrade.

SLDC's cabinet voted to ask the full council to fund the changes which should ensure the Station Road museum stays open to the public.

Action is needed at the museum to improve working conditions, and ensure it complies with fire regulations and the Disability Discrimination Act, which comes into force later this year.

Mike Jones, director of customer services for SLDC, said he hoped the upgrade cash would attract a similar amount of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, members of which had given him positive feedback on the museum's chances.

Mr Jones said: "This could provide a better museum for everybody."

Responsibility for finding the money to upgrade the museum has been a controversial topic for months.

The town council, which owns the building and some of the exhibits, refused to offer a contribution to the costs, meaning the district council, which operates it, had to find a way to fund the improvements.

The change in the law is due to come into force on October 1 and, if the museum could not offer full access for disabled people, it would be liable to prosecution, Mr Jones said.

He added: "The council might wish to take that chance but, I think, morally, this council has an obligation to set the standards."

If the funding for an upgrade at the site was not found, mothballing the exhibits or moving the whole operation to a new place were the only other options.

However, mothballing was found not to be viable, and when council officers explored the possibility of transporting the exhibits, it was very expensive.

For example, the cost of moving just the museum's polar bear would have cost £20,000.

Coun Stan Collins wryly observed: "It would have been cheaper to shoot one."

The cabinet's recommendation will now go forward to the full council to vote on how to safeguard the museum's future.