{"id":14638,"date":"2017-01-11T17:27:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T17:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=14638"},"modified":"2017-01-11T17:27:38","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T17:27:38","slug":"heritage-opinion-cities-pay-price-of-austerity-by-selling-their-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=14638","title":{"rendered":"Heritage opinion: Cities pay price of austerity by selling their heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Across the country, architectural gems are being bought by developers to help cash-strapped local authorities, according to the <em>Guardian.<\/em><\/h3>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The <em>Guardian<\/em> writes:<\/p>\n<p>Councils up and down the country have been accused of \u2018selling off the crown jewels\u2019 in their efforts to cope with funding cuts and the impending loss of \u00a318bn in central government grants.<\/p>\n<p>Take just three examples. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/sheffield\">Sheffield<\/a>, the city council has agreed that a Chinese consortium can explore plans to lease the Grade II-listed central library and redevelop it into a five-star hotel, a move castigated as a \u2018sad reflection\u2019 on the city; in Hornsey, north London the disposal of the town hall has been dubbed a \u2018shameful handover of the family silver\u2019, and in Ealing, west London, the Labour-controlled council has been castigated for \u2018betraying the borough\u2019 by disposing of its \u2018crown jewels\u2019, such as allowing the redevelopment of the Grade II-listed town hall into a hotel.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter to the <em>Sheffield Star<\/em>, comedian, writer and presenter Michael Palin, who was born in the city, wrote: \u2018The Sheffield central library embodies the very best aspects of civic pride. It is a fine building, built to give education and literacy a prominent place at the very heart of the city. That a building, seeking to improve the lot of all Sheffielders, should end up as a hotel for the rich and privileged seems to be a sad reflection on how little the city cares for its public service legacy.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Supporters of the scheme argue that while the city would have to move the library elsewhere, it would gain \u00a31m in annual revenue from leasing the building and would be free of the \u00a330m repair bill at a time when the Labour-controlled council is facing unprecedented financial pressures \u2013 since 2010, the council has had \u00a3352m cut from its budget and is set to lose a further \u00a3116m by 2021.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2016\/dec\/18\/cities-pay-price-of-austerity-selling-civic-heritage-sheffield-london-parks-libraries\" target=\"_blank\">Read the full <em>Guardian<\/em> story<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Across the country, architectural gems are being bought by developers to help cash-strapped local authorities, according to the Guardian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14641,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14638\/revisions\/14641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}