Read more: Longing for days of 'proper' galleries

It's some time ago since I flagged up what were the tangible achievements of Sheffield Museums and Galleries Trust viz attendance figures up, targets met, more diverse - especially the kids -range of visitors, friendly and enthusiastic front-of-house staff, all of which had a majority of Sheffielders, at least the ones who commented, supportive.

However its not so long since I decided Weston Park was no longer the Mecca it was for me that it was in the sixties and seventies when it put Leeds Museum in the shade and was an example of civic pride and municipal socialism.

When you could talk Sheffield history with John Bartlett, Pauline Beswick, Clive Hart and Julien Parsons. Nowadays you have to leave a message in someone's voicemail. You could bring your finds in, marvel over the technology of prehistoric flint knappers, gaze at Middle Eastern arms and armour, cremation urns, Bronze Age palstaves, Sheffield Plate, wander around the lofty, airy eaves of the Mappin and look at Sheffield's somewhat under-rated civic art collection with pride.

We remember Graves but have soon forgotten the name of Mappin. So what's gone wrong?

Well the attractions of the reconstructed butcher's shop, with plastic (good quality plastic, mind) chops have soon paled, not to mention the mock up Park Hill kitchen and model of the modern Sheffield.

Even the gibbet of Spence Broughton and the stuff on Sheffield's C19 Radicals cannot sustain sufficient interest for regular protracted visits. There's virtually nothing on Sheffield Castle and the Manor Lodge or the Archer Cross.

Why don't we put the replica, better still the original, in our Anglican Cathederal, recently glorious with the scent of flowers?
Or Wincobank Hill or the Bateman Collection, which spanned not only Sheffield but Derbyshire.

Is the Benty Grange Helmet, one of the glories of Anglo Saxon archaelogy, on show? I honestly don't recall, certainly there' s enough plastic replicas for the kids in the extended shop.
Funnily enough they cleared out the original stock in a council dust cart.

The problem is that the current exhibitions are permanent.
How much exhibition space did we lose for the cafe with its lattes and muffins?

As for the Millenium Galleries, how can we have someone walk in at 3:30 on a weekday and walk out with five antique Sheffield knives?

Councillor Enid Hattersley would have summat to say about that.
And we advertise every other city's attractions and pay for the privilege. So when the great and the good celebrate ten years of the Trust, in the galleries perchance, perhaps time over the profiteroles to reflect on some achievements.

Be fair, the roof no longer leaks and in the running for the Ghulbekian, but also a time to consider how to pull back some of the natives, or is that too much for a European City, after the Airport episode, to consider? What do you think, Dr Gosse?