Cuts Watch #79: the culture vultures

17 Jun 2010, by Richard Exell in Cuts Watch

Two of the cuts announced today seem especially mean-spirited: funding for the Stonehenge Visitor Centre and the British Film Institute Film Centre and digital access project.

Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site, but it is hard to visit, suffers from very restricted facilities and is cut off from the monuments and Avenue that form its context by a busy road. A refurbishment and improvement scheme included an important visitor centre that looks as though it will no longer go ahead.

The DCMS grant accounted for 27% of the funding for the National Film Centre planned by the British Film Institute; there must now be doubts about whether it will go ahead. The Centre was planned to incorporate five screens and was a favourite project of the late Anthony Minghella.