CITY councillors have come up with a plan to erase the Museum of Oxford's £127,000 deficit they want to get rid of entry charges.

From mid-September, visitors to the museum in Blue Boar Street, Oxford, will not be charged the current £2, £1.50 and 50p tariffs in an attempt to get more people through the door.

The calculated "risk", as one councillor described it, was designed to finally turn the Town Hall and museum into a viable business.

It is costing the council £127,000 a year to keep the museum afloat, but it is thought that if more people walked through the door, more money would be spent in the museum shop and newly-opened Gallery caf. Liberal Democrat city councillor Alan Armitage, executive member for healthier environment, said: "We may be wrong about this. We may find it is haemorrhaging far more money. It's a risk, but it's a risk worth taking.

"We will more than compensate for lost income through the shop, caf and demand for other facilities in the Town Hall."

But Mr Armitage admitted that if waiving the admission fees did not result in an upturn in visitors, then charges would be reintroduced.

In 2005/06 £26,000 was generated through admission charges when 25,600 people visited the museum.

Earlier this year, city councillors were close to shutting the 30-year-old museum in an effort to save money.

But councillors decided to keep the museum open after hearing that closing it would save only £3,000 in 2006/07 and £150,000 in 2007/08.

They also feared closure would have a harmful effect on tourism and on plans to renovate the Town Hall, potentially prejudicing bids for Lottery money.

City council leader John Goddard said: "We are just making quite sure there are no road blocks, but it's our intention to waive the entrance fee.

"The museum is difficult to get into so a lot of people walk past it, you cannot get to it from within the Town Hall and the museum is the only one in Oxford that charges for entry.

"It seems very likely that if you waive charges and make it more accessible then there will be more people going through and more people will spend money in the shop."

Next year, the museum is set to cash in on the success of children's fantasy films during a literary exhibition.

The council wants to tap into the lucrative Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia market all of which have Oxford connections in an effort to attract schoolchildren and tourists.

In 2007, an exhibition called Literary Oxford, which will include loans of books, costumes and possibly props used in some famous films, will be open.