Heritage news updates

In the wake of the Bangladeshi disasters, Sarah Page blogs about the value of UK safety regulation.

Members of Prospect trade union representing nearly 350 employees at the National Trust for Scotland are balloting on whether to take industrial action over management imposition of a pay settlement already rejected by 91% of members in a ballot in February.

Prospect has welcomed a call by Rushanara Ali MP to keep a treasured sculpture by Henry Moore in public hands and to place it at the Museum of London Docklands.

London Transport Museum has started a campaign against Transport for London’s decision to slash 25% of its funding over the next four years. The Save London Transport Museum campaign team is working to try to reverse the devastating cuts, but to do this they need your help.

Prospect is calling for members to sign a petition protesting against the destruction of archives at Ruskin College, an important educational facility for working class people in the UK.

The civil service desperately needs a thorough skills audit if is to provide its specialists with enough resources to keep them, Prospect Deputy General Secretary Dai Hudd argues in a blog on the Guardian Professional website today.

The stars of track and field have had their day – now it’s the turn of the behind-the-scenes Olympians without whom the 2012 games could not have happened.

National Trust-owned Tredegar House in south Wales enjoyed a housewarming party on 24 June. Thousands came to the free event hosted by the Trust, which took over the running of the 17th century Charles II mansion and estate from local authority ownership in March this year.

Britain’s civil service has lost its professional edge and needs urgent reform, Prospect said today (Wednesday) in a hard-hitting report, Government That Can – needs people who know how.

The campaign to stop cuts to library provision on the Isle of Man received an unexpected boost this week from Oscar nominated screenwriter, playwright, actor and author Alan Bennett.

A leading archaeologist's warning that the government spending cuts and rushed legislation risk destroying Britain’s cultural heritage irreparably have been highlighted in a TUC blog.

The blog on the Stronger Unions website refers to a report by the British Academy, History for the Taking: Perspectives on material heritage.

Leading archaeologist Sir Barry Cunliffe writes in the report that “cultural heritage is a finite and diminishing resource and there is a need for constant vigilance particularly at a time of economic constraint.

“When there are cuts to be made by national or local government, heritage is always the soft option, as we can see in the 32% cut in government support for English Heritage in the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review, and the savage cuts currently being made in the number of conservation officers employed in local government.

“Loss of expertise on this scale will be devastating. It is even more worrying coming at a time when the Localism Bill is proposing to diminish significantly the protection given to the settings of listed buildings and to conservation areas.

“One cannot help feeling that insufficient thought has been given to these matters: this is not surprising since the legislation is being rushed and consultation has been minimal.” He goes on to say: “Cultural heritage is too important and too subtle an issue to be left in the care of busy politicians unaided by sound academic guidance.”

For a copy of the report go to the web site of the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences.