City museums under threat

Yet, unthinkable though they may be, it seems that both these options are under consideration by the attractions’ parent, the Science Museum Group, which says that one of its museums would close if its budget suffers in the Government’s Spending Review, to be set out later this month.

In addition to the two Yorkshire museums, the group also runs the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester as the third regional outpost of London’s Science Museum. Yet it is the Media Museum in Bradford that is perceived as being the most vulnerable.

However, considering that it was only a few days ago that the group was denying that it had any plans to close its attractions, in spite of facing a large financial deficit, the many admirers 
of these museums are entitled to ask whether the operators have any clearly thought-out strategy for their future, or whether they are merely shroud-waving, describing alarming scenarios in the hope that the Government will be sufficiently worried to review its funding plans.

Whatever the financial reality, however, it would clearly be an act of cultural vandalism to allow any of these great museums to close. Indeed, it would also be the height of political folly, with the future of both coalition parties dependent on northern votes, to deal cities such as Bradford and York a blow of this magnitude.

To damage already fragile local economies by closing down collections that have been painstakingly built up over many years is not an act that any sensible administration would make.

It is therefore to be hoped that, between them, the Science Museum Group and the Government will come up with a sensible, sober survival strategy.