Railway Heritage Committee

[60041]

Acording to the BBC, the leaked list of proposed government cuts includes the abolition of the Railway Heritage Committee.
For those who don't know, the RHC was set up as part of the privatisation process to identify items of railway infrastructure, rolling stock and memorabilia of historic significance and interest, and arrange for their permanent preservation. These can be anything from a small document or picture right up to a signal box, station or locomotive.
With the rapid changes being made to railways in Britain, such as resignalling projects and electrification, not to mention possible line closures as a result of the aforementioned cuts, it is tragic to think that this last level of protection is going to be taken away just when it is needed.

[StoneRoad]

Along with the slashing abolition of the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (the MLA) amongst others.

what about the MLA ?
How is that relevant ?

.....

from the MLA website:
PRISM Grant Fund
The Fund for the PReservation of Industrial and Scientific Material (PRISM Fund) supports the acquisition and/or conservation of any object or group of objects illustrating the history of any branch of science, industry or technology.

MLA staff do the administration of PRISM grants, and lacking these is not going to help the heritage sector find funding to recover from the recession. (at least, that is my opinion!)

[Wavey]

The restoration of Dia 329 Thompson Corridor Third 1623 at Pickering has been partially funded by Prism grants. It is currently unclear as to whether claims against the remaining work will be funded so could impact on the completion date.

[Autocar Publicity]

It might affect us too, we're hoping for some money from them.

I'm sure there will be much criticism of the cuts, of varying degrees of validity, but I'll start it off by suggesting 'Penny wise, pound foolish' and 'knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing'...

[Ultimo Tiger]

I'm in two minds about (although maybe I should state I'm a member of the evil right wing baby eating Tory party too). On the one hand, I can understand the argument that government shouldn't be using tax payer money for this sort of thing. On the other however, we are CONSERVatives and maybe things like this are acceptable.

I mean it looks like we're going to lose all but one Class 56 and 58 doesn't it? Maybe some money going to save a few for posterity would be a good investment.

Although why Cameron (and I like the man) chose to ring fence the international aid budget has always seemed very strange to me

[60041]

Although why Cameron (and I like the man) chose to ring fence the international aid budget has always seemed very strange to me

Maybe because a substantial part of the so called overseas aid budget goes to pay the pensions of former employees of the diplomatic corps. Looking after their own and all that.

[StoneRoad]

Heritage is one area of tourism that has potential to be a growth industry, and therefore conservation of heritage items relevant to that industry is important.
Both the conservation and tourism industry are important employers, and in some areas, almost the only work is in tourism/heritage!
In any case, having people in work is far better for the national economy than for them to be claiming benefits.