How our heritage sights could be under threat but the Government remains silent - Andrew Vine

That is because the two bodies that look after so much of our landscape and hundreds of historic buildings, the National Trust (NT) and English Heritage (EH), face serious financial problems and are cutting jobs to reduce costs.

In the case of NT, 550 of its 9,500 staff are facing redundancy, and 189 of EH’s 2,500 employees are going. There will also be reductions in the opening hours at some EH properties and closures during the winter months when visitor numbers are low.

The reasons are wearyingly familiar. Income from admissions and membership fees are not sufficient to cover rising costs, including expensive maintenance of often ancient buildings and there is too little government support.

Against that already difficult backdrop, the government has made matters worse – as it has for virtually every sector of the economy – by increasing employer national insurance contributions, which has added £10m a year to NT’s wage bill. That’s money lost from looking after properties and landscapes.

The problems facing both organisations are very bad news for Yorkshire, because between them they look after some of our most iconic landmarks, perhaps more than many residents of the county realise.

NT properties and estates include Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, Nostell, near Wakefield and Hardcastle Crags, at Hebden Bridge, as well as vast areas of land and footpaths at the coast and inland, including Marsden Moor and Roseberry Topping.

EH cares for Whitby Abbey, Scarborough Castle, York’s Clifford’s Tower and Brodsworth Hall, near Doncaster.

It’s a fair assumption that many of the visitors who will crowd all these attractions over the next few weeks won’t give much thought to what is involved in maintaining them.

It tends to get taken for granted that landmarks which have stood for centuries will always be there. But there’s no guarantee of that.

Whitby Abbey began rising from its clifftop in the 13th century and the reason it still stands today - and remains one of Yorkshire’s most popular visitor destinations - is dedicated and continuous conservation over the past century, beginning at a point when it was starting to crumble.

Without the expertise of those who look after it and other buildings with such sensitivity, history can be lost.

The scale of what is potentially at risk is vast – nationwide, 900 properties and thousands of square miles of land are in the care of NT and EH.

Yet the government is silent about what is to be done to ensure all receive the attention and funding they need. So was its Conservative predecessor.

As they are doing with those guardians of our precious natural heritage, the national parks, which are being starved of funding, ministers look the other way and hope that somehow things will turn out for the best.

But without action, they won’t. Just as the national parks including the Dales, the North Yorkshire Moors and the Peak District need more money to look after their magnificent landscapes, so do the country’s twin conservation bodies.

Increasing admission fees to properties is not the answer. All that will do is reduce income even further if it puts prices beyond the budgets of families looking for days out during the school holidays.

And for the NT, charging for access to much of the land it manages is impossible, such as lengthy stretches of the clifftop path between Whitby and Bridlington. Yet there is a cost in maintaining and signposting those paths, which are enjoyed by thousands of walkers every year.

There needs to be an honest national conversation about how we manage our heritage, and pay for its upkeep – and the government must acknowledge its responsibilities.

Those who look after historic sites such as Scarborough Castle or Clifford’s Tower – or the national parks – cannot be left to flounder, forced into getting rid of dedicated staff, because of unforgiving economics or relentlessly rising maintenance costs.