Philip A Rowe, town clerk, Newton Abbot Town Council, writes:

I refer to the letter which appeared in your newspaper on Friday from Wayland van Hyldyck-Smith in connection with Newton Abbot Town and GWR Museum.

Yes, the museum is small but could I suggest perfectly formed. I would suggest most museums throughout the world resemble icebergs – approximately only one-tenth of its volume is above water, ie on view.

The museum operates with just one full-time curator and a part-time administrator but manages to design and deliver a different exhibition at its St Paul's Road premises every year. This is through funding from the town council (together with modest grants, sales and generous donations) but most importantly via an army of more than 45 volunteers.

That is how it survives and that is delivering value for money for every council tax payer in Newton Abbot.

Through the curator's huge effots and the town councillors' considerable support, part of the museum is currently closed for the installation of the Sandford Orleigh Screen, a 16th century Newton Abbot artefact which, if not for the curator and the town council, would have been sold in sections and scattered to the four winds rather than being restored and held in Newton Abbot for all to see and enjoy for generations to come.

In the Newton Abbot and District Community Plan published in 2008, the number one priority in a list of 20-plus projects wanted by the people of Newton Abbot was a community hub in one location where local government, voluntary, charity, etc services could be accessed in the town centre.

Since then the town council has given serious consideration to any and every opportunity which has presented itself to relocate the museum and town hall to the town centre.

Why, then, hasn't it happened? The answer is simple, how on earth can the town council fund such an operation? precept every resident of Newton Abbot? Would that be appreciated by all those people who, it is suggested, won't 'go that far' to even visit the museum? In the past five years the museum has received on average 5,000 visitors a year, many being holidaymakers who clearly feel the museum is worth the effort.

The town council and the museum will continue to seek opportunities to relocate to a town centre site, within a building which will provide Newton Abbot with the museum a strategically significant town deserves.

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