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Transport museum plans stall after funding is withdrawn
PLANS to open a vintage transport museum have stalled after the Department of Tourism and Leisure withdrew its financial support.
The Manx Transport Trust was due to open a museum, restoring and showing off 25 historical government and privately owned vehicles, at a hangar in Jurby this summer.
But the department withdrew its support for the scheme this month after two years of negotiations, because it could not afford to support the project.
Tourism and Leisure Minister Martyn Quayle said paying 50,000 annual rent to the Department of Local Government and the Environment for the lease of the hangar was 'simply unaffordable in the current financial situation'.
But he said the department was still willing to consider the permanent loan of some of its vehicles to the trust.
It puts the future of the department's vehicles, including trams and buses stored at Homefield Garage, in Douglas, in doubt as the museum was due to house some of them when the lease runs out in March.
Mr Quayle said: 'The demise of the Jurby project does impact upon the clearance of Homefield but the department remains committed to working productively with all of the transport enthusiast groups to ensure not only that Homefield is cleared by the end of March when the lease expires, but also that all historical vehicles are appropriately relocated.'
Manx Transport Trust chairman Richard Davis said: 'The trust is obviously disappointed at the withdrawal of DTL support at this late stage and feels that the cancellation of this project will mean that opportunities for the Island's tourism and leisure industry will now be missed.
'It will also result in lost educational and training opportunities, and reduce the availability of vintage vehicles for filming purposes.
'More importantly, though, it raises the serious question of what will now become of significant and historical vintage road and rail vehicles, currently stored in DTL-leased sheds in Douglas which must be cleared within the next two months, and which the trust had agreed to care for at Jurby.'
He said the project was too important to be allowed to fail and the trust would look at other options.
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YOUR COMMENTS
THIS IS WHERE STRONG LEADERSHIP COMES IN FROM TONY BROWN, 2 GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS NOT WORKING TOGETHER, THEY SHOULD THINK ABOUT THE ISLAE OF MAN, NOT GETTING RENT FROM 1 GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT TO PAY ANOTHER, GET A GRIP TONY AND SORT IT, ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
RR
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Weather for Isle of Man
Tuesday 07 February 2012
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