WIRRAL Council is sitting on art treasures worth more than £14m, according to details released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The authority revealed it had at least five pieces of fine art and 10 vehicles in the Wirral Transport Museum valued at more than £100,000.

But Colin Simpson, principal museums officer, said the “value is only there if you are going to sell them and we have no plans to do so”.

He said a key part of the museum's role is to collect things for the future as well as for the present.

He highlighted the Stanley Reed collection, which includes around 200 drawings, only a handful of which have been displayed at one time.

Mr Simpson said: “It shows one man’s work over the span of 50 years.

“It might be financially negligible but is very valuable as an archive.”

He said it is rare for more than 10% of the council art to be on display, but added: “We do our best to turn things over regularly - and we are happy to make items available on appointment.”

Mr Simpson said: “Almost every museum in the country has more things in storage than on display – there are very few exceptions to that. Some things you have for research purposes.

“Other museums will have far more valuable collections.

“However, what is significant to us is the local significance of the material, rather than the financial value.”

Among the museum's prized possessions is its Della Robbia pottery, made in Birkenhead near Hamilton Square, of which it has the largest such collection.

Other valuables include a large collection of 18th century Liverpool porcelain donated to the museum in the 1960s and one of the most important in the country.

It is primarily those two collections which form the most valuable parts of the museum's estimated £1,340,000 worth of ceramics.