Here we go again. I and others received this this morning. Apologies for any duplication.
Julia ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Hello - I'd like to flag up the fact that the owners of the Chantry building, the new unitary Northumberland County Council, who replaced Castle Morpeth Borough Council in April, are looking at massive cuts to cope with a £30million deficit. A preliminary public consultation is going on now till around 20th January. Would you be willing to write a letter of support for the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum, praising whatever aspects of it you think are important (cultural, touristic, historic, economic, iconic), and complimenting Northumberland County Council on not proposing to close it? The relevant councillor's details are given below. A letter as soon as possible, and ideally before Christmas, would be welcome if you could manage it. Their document proposing a short list of various cuts in services does not mention closure of the museum, but there is a strong possibility that by February these measures may be found to be insufficient for the savings required: a second hitlist would then be activated leaving no time for a further consultation on the extra cuts. The second "long" list is not in the public domain but the museum is under threat, and in fact the curator has had an informal invitation to put in for voluntary redundancy, which somewhat flies in the face of the initial published document's intentions. The portfolio holder for culture is Councillor E.I. (Isabel) Hunter. Her address is Morvin, 11 Springhill Lane, Tweedmouth, Berwick upon Tweed, TD15 2QN and her e- mail is isabel.hun...@northumberland.gov.uk Please also copy in Anne at the museum on anne.moor...@northumberland.gov.uk and you might also like to copy in also anyone else connected with the County Council that you think relevant. The Chief Executive is Steve Stewart, though I'm not sure what format his e-mail address takes. The more positive support expressed for the museum, and its present location, the more the powers that be might appreciate it, so please do spread the word. Many thanks. I'm sorry that we seem yet again to have to fight, but it worked last time. Have a good Christmas! Kim Bibby-Wilson ------- End of forwarded message ------- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
