Reporting local life since 1854 40pFriday, March 30, 2012

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SAVE OURWEDGWOOD

As fears grow that Potteries heritage will be sold off, aplea to Culture Minister Ed Vaizey as he visits today...

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Weekend Edition

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Reporting local life since 1854 35pSaturday, April 24, 2010

MUSEUM’SSOS TO SAVECOLLECTION

BY GEORGE,I CAN’T GETA DDRINK!

PAGE 18

Administrators may need millionsto resolve Wedgwood pension crisis

BY DAVID JOHNSONdavid.johnson@thesentinel.co.uk

THE Wedgwood Museum faces raisingmillions of pounds to keep its famouscollection together.

The internationally-renowned attrac-tion has gone into administration afterbeing saddled with a £134 million pensionfund deficit from the collapse of the Wedg-wood company.

Caverswall-based administrator Beg-bies Traynor said it was “confident for thefuture” of the Barlaston attraction.

It will remain open to the public andno redundancies are expected amongthe five full-time and six part-timestaff.

Now Begbies Traynor is plan-ning a fund-raising campaign topay off the museum’s creditorsand avoid the need to sell any of itstreasures.

The museum called in admin-istrators yesterday afterbeing hit with the £134million claim by theWedgwood Group Pen-sion Plan.

It was thought thecompany schemewould be taken over bythe Pension Protec-tion Fund (PPF) fol-lowing the collapseof Wedgwood andsister firm RoyalDoulton last year.

But the PPF could not legally accept thescheme as there was still a survivingsolvent organisation connected to it – theWedgwood Museum.

Now the museum is in administration,the PPF becomes the main creditor.

Administrator Bob Young said BegbiesTraynor would be approaching heritageorganisations, the public and philan-

thropists to raise cash.He said: “The public should noticeabsolutely no difference, becauseI’m confident we’ll keep it open.

“It’s a fantastic place to go andwe would encourage people to

visit.“This is not a typical admin-

istration where we are look-ing to sell things.

“Rather than doingthat we will be lookingfor a voluntary agree-ment from creditors togive us a period oftime to raise moneyfrom elsewhere.

“It will inevitablytake some time toassess the best wayforward in thiscomplex situation,

but we are aiming to

find a solution in conjunction with thetrustees and the Heritage Lottery Fundthat will enable the museum to continuetrading and to maintain its marvellouscollections.”

Begbies Traynor is determining whichparts of the famous collection are ownedby the museum, which parts are owned bythird parties and which are protectedbecause they are held in trust.

The museum’s assets can then be val-ued and Begbies will try to raise theequivalent amount for creditors – stavingoff the possibility of a sell-off.

Only five of the pension plan’s 7,000members were museum employees whenthe manufacturer fell into administrationand the museum is a separate charitabletrust.

George Stonier, chairman of The Wedg-wood Museum Trust, said: “Themuseum’s trustees and their advisers areworking hard to find a solution to thisextremely unfortunate situation.

“The trustees are extremely grateful forthe continued support of the museum’sstaff and its many friends and remainoptimistic that the collections will con-tinue to be available to the public.”

What do you think should happen now?Email us at letters@thesentinel.co.uk

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■ ‘250 YEARS OF OUR HISTORY’: PAGE 6

Dear Mr Vaizey,We need your help. This region is in danger oflosing a staggeringly important part of its culture.The Wedgwood Collection is 10,000 pieces of ourhistory and heritage – a permanent record of thecreativity and innovation of Potteries people. To historians it is acollection of international significance. To us, it is a p re c i o u ssymbol of an era in which this region was the beating heart of ourn a t i o n’s industrial revolution. Too many symbols like this havealready been allowed to slip away. Now we want your help to savethis national treasure. Josiah Wedgwood’s family founded a

museum in 1906 to fulfil his wish to have his workschronicled for the people. Little did they know that,more than a century later, this unique collectioncould be sold because of a loophole in pensionslaw. Once broken up, this priceless collection cannever be put together again. It must be preservedforever, in North Staffordshire, the home ofBritish pottery. Today we urge you and yourGovernment to... Save the Wedgwood Collection!Yours sincerely,The People of North Staffordshire

APPEAL: Culture MinisterEd Vaizey.

ON YER BIKE!NICK AND TONY

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