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Author
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Topic: English Heritage
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AJR
Senior Member
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posted 01-30-2001 06:38 AM
 
The following article was in the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph on Saturday 27th January 2001.THE chairman of English Heritage accused the Government yesterday of not spending enough on the cathedrals, castles and stately homes that are crucial to Britain's worldwide tourist appeal.
Describing existing policies as "short-sighted", Sir Neil Cossons called on ministers to plough back part of the tax revenue earned from tourism to help wipe out the backlog of repairs to some of the nation's most treasured buildings.
Sir Neil, who took over his role last April, was speaking at the 1,000-year-old Hereford Cathedral, where he was announcing grants totalling £2.5 million for restoring and maintaining the fabric of 27 cathedrals.
He described the buildings as "the living hearts of some of the country's most historic cities". But, he said, their plight underlined the wider need for tax revenues from tourism to be re-invested.
Sir Neil proposed that 2.5 per cent of the £3 billion the Treasury received annually from tourism should be ploughed back. The resulting £75 million-a-year boost to conservation funding, he said, would permit decaying Grade I and Grade II* buildings to be properly restored within 10 years instead of the 60 years envisaged at existing spending levels.
Sir Neil said the Government had failed to recognise the importance of the country's great cathedrals as wealth creators, pointing out that last year they attracted 18.2 million visitors to England's historic cities. Just thought some might be interested
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The broken stones, the ruined walls,
'Tis few who know where hist'ry falls.
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Merlin
Senior Member
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posted 01-30-2001 06:57 AM
Sad to hear that you have the same problems as we do here on the continent. And it is much worse with monuments that do not attract tourism, like smaller sites, far away from the next hotel or restaurant etc. It needs voluntary work to keep the remainig walls of those castles upright. Even more problems have the archeologists: Until the late 1970s, here in Switzerland great excavations have been made almost every year - but now the lack of money killed off all such projects. Only if a site is in danger because of some building projects, the archeological service may do a so-called 'emergency-excavation', before all evidence is destroyed forever...Merlin |
wurdsmiff
unregistered
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posted 01-30-2001 08:34 AM
Sadly it is typical that the value of our heritage is realised only by the enthusiasts before it is gone. Public Funding could not possibly save all our ancient buildings, however it seems that even those which are best placed to be preserved are again being neglected.
The situation ( at least in Scotland) is the same for archeologists, in that rescue digs are prioritised to the point that comparitively few others occur, and are limited to very rigid time frames and coverage, in order that the new developers of the site are not too handicapped by the work.------------------
Demeure par la verite
Visit my web-site at
www.castlesontheweb.com/members/wurdsmiff/castles.htm Gordon.
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