Having visted many times and known people that have worked there I do hope it isnt just left to fall apart.
Along with the telescope there is also the arboretum which isnt mentioned but stands on the same site as the telescope.
I’m hoping that some kind of plan will be put forward that includes the preservation of the Lovell telescope but the addition of a smaller telescope that is part of some larger array similar to e-Merlin.
Hopefully it won’t just be sold off to become new housing.
It’s a World Heritage Site, the telescopes are grade 1 listed and many of the buildings are grade 2 listed. It’s about 25 miles from the Prime Minister’s constituency. So I hope it will be preserved. Even if it is no longer used for scientific research it should be preserved as a heritage site.
I visited it for the first time in 1968 when I was 7. I’d seen it on a TV program (maybe Tomorrow’s World) and pestered my parents to take me. Neither of them were in any way technical and couldn’t understand the techno-geekiness in their son. The staff in the visitor centre made a huge fuss of me because I was interested and probably helped foster more interest in space stuff, the ongoing Apollo project helped too! For that reason alone I feel sad.
When you consider the huge amount of money squandered on companies like Fujitsu and Crapita and the terrible services they provide, the lack of funding for places like Jodrell Bank and UK science is terrible.
There were a lot of glum-looking young people on our staff call yesterday.
It makes no sense even from a bean-counting perspective. It’s also surprising that so many of the cuts (not just us) are in the north west of England, given who just became Prime Minister.
Over the last few months there’s been some hideous axe-swinging going on in academic budgets, some of it allegedly justified by drops in foreign student numbers, and much of it hitting research hard. All seems so short-sighted…
Back in 2011 I remember the UOM spending vast sums on buildings and decorative granite blockwork. Whitworth hall had extensive work done to it. Building service staff everywhere…
That boom period has gone for universities now clearly it wasn’t going to last.
Home students on my EE course were a tiny fraction of the year group.
There’s not much “alleged” about it, my institution have been very clear that our entire operating budget depends on how many paying customers they get through the door this coming semester. Well-to-do overseas students were really nothing more than a sticking plaster covering how badly-funded universities in the UK have been over the last number of years, and unfortunately it now looks like the bottom’s falling out the basket with all the eggs in it!
