Canterbury Tories were embarrassed last night as they lost a vote on the future of museums in Canterbury, Herne Bay and Whitstable.

One Conservative councillor broke ranks and two abstained in a vote on whether to shut three of the district’s five centres for five months a year, which bosses say are not making enough money.

It means the overview committee has recommended finding ways to keep the museums open, after the motion was carried four votes to three.

Three Tories voted to shut the museums during the winter months, after a consultation said keeping them open all-year round was costing the authority too much money.

However Lib Dem leader Cllr Alex Perkins, his colleague Cllr Nick Eden-Green, Labour’s Cllr John Wratten and Conservative Cllr Neil Baker voted that the council should explore ways to boost visitor numbers to reduce cost.

Cllr Perkins said: “Rather than saying it is costing us too much per visitor so let’s close them, we should say the museum is costing us too much per visitor, so let’s get more visitors.”

A similar problem was raised with the Canterbury Roman museum in 2010, when more than 2,000 people signed a petition against closing it, as well as the Westgate Towers and Herne Bay museum.

A Roman centurion was employed to stand outside in the town to attract visitors, which had a positive effect.

Cllr Perkins said: “We could think of some way of advertising these museums and better ways to bring people in.”

He added that he hopes the council’s executive will listen to the overview committee’s recommendations when it makes a decision on the proposals next Thursday.

He said: “If Cllr John Gilbey [the council leader] wants to close a load of museums, he will close a load of museums.

“Maybe they don’t value our museums and heritage.

“Well we do, and we won’t let this lie.”