Canterbury City Council's (CCC) draft budget for the 2010-11 financial year could result in the closure of two of the city's museums as part of efforts to reduce expenditure.

A public consultation has been launched by the council into the plans, which include shutting the Roman Museum and the West Gate Towers Museum as part of a restructuring of the city's museums service. Herne Bay Museum would also be transformed into a community and education space under the proposals, which will contribute CCC's bid to reduce £3m a year.

CCC leader John Gilbey said: "Our aim has been to protect the front line services that people tell us they value most and maintain funding for the things we are required to do by law. This has meant we have had to look for most of the savings from the discretionary services that we choose to fund. "Savings options we considered but decided not to implement include charging for collections of garden waste and closing any of our leisure centres. We are pleased that we have been able to protect these services that we know people like."

Other proposals include the installation of year-round energy efficient lights in Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay to save on "expensive" Christmas lights and a 3 per cent reduction in grants to voluntary groups.