£6m cuts cast a shadow over Minster window restoration

MAJOR developments at two of Yorkshire's iconic attractions have suffered a serious setback with the decision to cut £6m of funding.

York Minster has been told it will no longer be getting 1m towards the restoration of its medieval Great East Window after development agency Yorkshire Forward had its budget slashed and prepares to be replaced by 2012.

The agency has also axed a 5m grant towards a 21m revamp of the Great Hall at York's National Railway Museum.

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The cuts – on top of 40m of projects already cancelled by Yorkshire Forward from this year's budget – raise fears the schemes could be knocked off track, although Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has agreed to talks to discuss how the funding gap can be filled.

The priceless and irreplaceable East Window, dubbed the "Sistine Chapel of stained glass" by the Dean of York, Keith Jones, is under threat because the ancient stonework around it has begun to bow.

Its restoration is part of a 19m project at the Minster, including extensive repairs to the stonework on the East Front. About 17m had been raised including the Yorkshire Forward money, 10m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and 500,000 from York Council.

Dr Richard Shephard, the director of development and chamberlain at the Minster, said: "There's no alternative – we will have to find the money from elsewhere. One million pounds is a large gap to fill.

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"The people of Yorkshire have been immensely generous and continue to be on a regular basis. I know there's no alternative to keeping this place standing, so we will have to find the money from elsewhere."

The museum's redevelopment project is called NRM+ and promises to "completely transform" the Great Hall, by 2012/13, and aims to tell the story of how railways have shaped the modern world with multimedia displays, improved access to the collection and better visitor facilities.

Hugh Bayley, Labour MP for City of York, who raised the issue with Mr Vaizey this week, said: "If the Government doesn't want Yorkshire Forward to invest in projects like these, they need to set up alternative ways to support our heritage. The funding had been promised by Yorkshire Forward and the Government should take responsibility for this."

He added: "York Minster has also worked hard to obtain funding for its planned improvements and the 1m promised from Yorkshire Forward was vital for the work. The Minster is the jewel in York's crown and is visited by millions of people every year. I saw the Great East Window close up and saw that the work facing the stoneworkers and glaziers to save and restore the window to its former glory was immense."

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Mr Vaizey, who visited York in April and described it as a "fine city", said he would meet Mr Bayley "to discuss how we can help York to continue to move forward with its exciting cultural and heritage projects".

An NRM spokesman said: "We are about to submit a second stage application to the Heritage Lottery Fund and are currently speaking to a number of potential funders from both the public and private sectors.

"Therefore we are very confident that the withdrawal of the funding from Yorkshire Forward will have no major impact on the project."

Andy Tordoff, assistant director of environment at Yorkshire Forward, said: "We worked with both projects to develop comprehensive business plans, but due to financial restrictions both projects were not able to progress to final sign off and approval for investment and as a result the two projects did not feature on the 40m budget cut list as the funding had not been committed to them at that stage."