Manx National Heritage (MNH) has been strongly criticised over its lack of plans to return a famous armed schooner to Castletown.

The Peggy was temporarily removed from the Nautical Museum in 2015 for conservation work.

Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse is today asking Tynwald to set out a realistic timeline for putting the vessel back in the ancient capital, and to explain why there has been such a delay in doing this.

He will ask Chief Minister Howard Quayle to report back by July 20.

Mr Moorhouse did however stop short of saying government had an ’anti-heritage bias’.

He said: ’My [Tynwald] motion is really forward looking.

’We’re looking at when the Peggy can come home and where the money can come from to actually allow that to happen in a really successful way.

’I think it’s important for the island because it’s such an iconic thing.

’I think actually having that great yacht in Douglas bay recently has [brought] that recognition that 232 years ago the Peggy was actually out on the sea, and it would’ve been equally impressive.

’I think we’ve forgotten what a significant item of nautical heritage we’ve got in the island.’

He was asked whether now was the right time to undertake a potentially costly move in the midst of the pandemic’s ongoing economic impact, when it could be delayed.

He said: ’Most definitely now is the time.

’What we need to do is invest and make sure the island has attractive things to go and see - and this is one of them.’

Last week in Tynwald Mr Moorehouse asked for a written answer detailing the dimensions of the industrial unit where the Peggy is stored, the ’barn’ and the cellar at Castletown Nautical Museum and those of the boat itself.

MNH responded that though they had already directly provided much information on the boat to Mr Moorhouse and its dimensions are publicly available, with regard to the buildings: ’MNH does not consider it to be the best use of MNH’s resource to provide the requested information on dimensions. Indeed without knowing the purpose for which measurements are requested it could be misleading to provide raw data out of context’.

Also leading the criticism of MNH is former Chief Minister Tony Brown - who has raised concerns over the organisation’s handling of the matter.

Mr Brown himself served as MNH vice-chair from 2003 to 2006.

Outgoing MNH chair Edumund Southworth has defended the actions of MNH, claiming the boat was moved to storage in the Isle of Man Business Park to prevent it from serious damage.