AN?OPEN evening forum and workshop about plans to expand Petersfield Museum is being hosted by trustees.

In September the museum hopes to take ownership of Petersfield police station. It is then planned to expand the museum, from the former magistrates court next to the police building and into the Victorian police station in St Peter’s Road.

To pay for the renovation of the listed building and alterations, museum bosses are applying for a Heritage Lottery Fund.

The forum and workshop evening at Herne Leisure Centre in Petersfield is open to everyone interested in the project, and will focus on three themes.

Firstly, there will be an exclusive chance to see the design ideas for parts of the new building, as proposed by architecture students from Kingston University.

There will be discussions on the current proposals for the enlarged museum. These include specially adapted rooms for exhibitions, and a Victorian justice centre.

There will also be a debate on how the new museum can best meet the interests of the town, residents and visitors.

Speakers on the evening will be museum trustee Bill?Gosney, Hampshire County council senior conservation architect Giles Pritchard, and Andrew Budd, who is senior lecturer at the school of architecture and landscape at Kingston University.

The evening has been organised by the museum and The Petersfield Society.

Museum curator Katherin Pierin said: “It will be an inter-active workshop about the future of the museum, where you will have a chance to meet the architect, discuss your suggestions with others and feed them back to the museum trustees.”

The free entry evening is tomorrow (Thursday) and the doors open at 7pm.