New Hopes Media Museum Will Survive

by Emma Wilkinson

The future of the National Media Museum looks brighter today after Culture Minister Ed Vaizey assured Bradford MPs that he does not want to let the museum close.

The meeting took place at Westminster last night to discuss the question of whether one of three northern museums belonging to the Science Museum Group would face closure because of shortages in funding.

Bosses from the Science Museum Group said the prospect of a further a 10% cut in government backing would mean either the Railway Museum in York, the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester or the National Media Museum in Bradford would have to close.

Nearly forty thousand people, including celebrities like Oscar-winner John Hurt and Bradford local Gareth Gates, got behind a campaign to save the National Media Museum.

But Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, David Ward, had said that the threat of closure was completely blown out of proportion and that it was a bargaining ploy to get more money out of the government.

But Gerry Sutcliffe, Labour MP for Bradford South has been behind the campaign from the beginning and was at the Westminster meeting last night.

He told BCB: “The good news is that because of the public support that we’ve had as MPs and the national support that we’ve been getting, the government would see it as a big political problem to close the museum.”

Listen to the full interview with BCB’s Ônè Chappy here: