The budget for the new museum and gallery was originally set at £400,000 but has cost £520,000, attributed to a rise in building costs.
Asked if she could justify the amount spent on the art gallery among so many other costs faced by the council, councillor Marina Strinkovsky, Swindon’s cabinet minister for culture, said: “I’m not going to play the justifying game.
“I’m not above a Churchillian metaphor, and there’s a reason why the theatres in London never closed during the Blitz.
“Art and heritage in a time of crisis is a core British value, that’s all the justification there is.
“But what I would say to the cost is it’s not either/or. There is no list of potholes we deprioritised because we built the museum.”
