| Topic: | Re: Proposed closure of Wandsworth Museum "is worse than a crime" | |
| Posted by: | Cedric Peachey | |
| Date/Time: | 25/02/07 20:50:00 |
| On the Politics Show London on BBC1 today, someone openly described the proposal by Wandsworth Council to close Wandsworth Museum as "a mistake - it's worse than a crime!" What public personality could possibly have been so unambiguous in their condemnation of this Council's sudden decision to close the Borough's one and only Museum? Surely this had to be someone with no connections with the Conservative party and with none of the experience, the intelligence or the vision needed to appreciate Councillor Grimston's vaunted strategy for "bringing culture to the community"? The culprit was none other than Sir John Tusa, Managing Director of the Barbican and recently appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party's brand-new Art Commission - a post he was asked to take by Hugo Swire, Shadow Secretary of Culture. Tim Donovan's interview this morning with Sir John Tusa and Chris Smith will not make comfortable listening for our Conservative Councillors or for Justine Greening, but it does express what thousands of residents have been saying to their elected representatives for the last seven weeks. If this Council will not heed their own electorate, perhaps they might just listen to their betters, both in politics and in the arts. The link is at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/regions/london/default.stm Click on the button on the right-hand side "Latest Programme" One point - the £18 per visitor cost quoted by Tim Donovan is a great specimen of how inaccurate statistics can be. The Council's publicised cost of running the Museum is £418k (which is yet to be properly validated). That sum divided by 30,000 visitors produces a cost per head of £13.93. However, the Museum also serves a further 14,000 customers through its research services, outreach programmes and website. If we take these into account (as they are indeed an integral part of what the Museum does), the cost per customer drops to £9.50 - a very far cry from the figure that the Council has used to justify its closure proposals. |