Museum closure would be body blow to North’s culture says MP

More than 400 people staged a protest on Saturday outside the National Media Museum in Bradford, which is one of three venues which are at risk of closing if funding cuts are confirmed by the Government on June 26.

The National Railway Museum in York along with the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester are also in the firing line amid the latest austerity drive which is expected to be imposed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Mr Galloway will be meeting with parliamentary colleagues representing Bradford in the House of Commons today to discuss an action plan to prevent the closure of the media museum in Bradford, which was designated as the world’s first Unesco City of Film in 2009.

The Respect MP for Bradford West, who organised the weekend’s rally outside the National Media Museum, said: “It would be shameful and unforgivable if any of these museums were allowed to close.

“They are national treasures in the North, and there is such a strong feeling that they should be saved.

“We already have a huge imbalance between the North and the South, and any closure will only amplify this. There is no way that we are going to let this happen if at all possible.”

The Yorkshire Post revealed on Thursday last week that Ian Blatchford, the director of the Science Museums Group, which also runs the Science Museum in London, had confirmed one of the three northern venues would be closing if an expected 10 per cent cut to budgets is confirmed.

The National Railway Museum attracts 900,000 visitors every year and houses a million objects charting 300 years of rail history, while the National Media Museum sees 600,000 people pass through its doors annually.

The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester has about 800,000 visitors each year.

The National Railway Museum employs 242 staff, 160 of which are full-time, at its York site, while the National Media Museum employs 158 people, including 105 full-time equivalent.

Online campaigns and petitions have been launched, as senior tourism figures and the region’s leading politicians have all condemned the possible closure of one of the museum sites.

Labour MP for Bradford South Gerry Sutcliffe, who is a former DCMS Minister, has accused bosses of “a nasty metropolitan snobbery” towards museums in the North and warned the closure of the Bradford venue would “kill the city stone dead”.

The chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, Gary Verity, said any decision to close either of the region’s museums was wrong as they played a “vital” role in the UK’s tourism industry.

But Mr Blatchford has maintained that one of the museums will be forced to close if the latest round of funding cuts for his group are announced in Chancellor George Osborne’s Treasury speech.

Despite the DCMS claiming a 10 per cent cut is “speculation”, Mr Blatchford was adamant he had been told to expect the reduction in funding after 2015, on top of 
the 25 per cent fall which the museums group had already suffered.

He said the 10 per cent cut equated to £4m a year for the group, which is already facing a £2m annual budget deficit.

Mr Blatchford said the risk of either very severe cuts or complete closure was a “very, very real option”.

Don’t close a door on
the past: Page 11.