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Mr. Gardiner: I agree about the importance of the Hermitage and I enjoy my visits there, too. Does the hon.
Gentleman agree that there was something of an anachronism in what he said, given that Catherine the Great died long before a large part of its collection was painted?
Mr. Clifton-Brown: That simply is not true. She was responsible for building up a large part of the collection.
Mr. Richard Spring (West Suffolk): From the Walpole family.
Mr. Clifton-Brown: My hon. Friend is right. Unfortunately, many of the great works of art in the Hermitage came from this nation because the Labour Government's policy of introducing death duties caused them to disappear from this country. Unless ordinary people are prepared to go to the Hermitage, they no longer have the opportunity see them. That is a great pity. If the hon. Member for Brent, North (Mr. Gardiner) and the Government were to learn that lesson, those treasures would remain in this country so that future generations could see them.
After the Government came to office, they also cut grants to the British library. The library purchases manuscripts and maintains them so that academics and others can examine them in this country. As in so many aspects of Government policy, we have seen cuts and taxes by stealth that damage the arts in this country. Not only are the arts of philosophical importance, they are important for jobs, for our balance of trade and for many dependent, spin-off industries.
Mr. John Gunnell (Morley and Rothwell):
I am fortunate to have experienced a painful event: as the leader of West Yorkshire council, I experienced being abolished. The loss of office and the loss of the work done by the council was a most painful experience. However, I can now look back on it as a positive one, because we were able to initiate and implement several arts initiatives, with the support of the relevant district councils and, often, the support of the Conservative opposition on West Yorkshire council. In a few cases, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has helped to stabilise those initiatives, sometimes adding to help given by previous Governments. In all cases, he has worked with the relevant local authorities.
The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds is a shining light among theatres; throughout the 13 years following the abolition of the West Yorkshire council, the playhouse continued to receive support from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and its predecessor Departments. My right hon. Friend realises that the playhouse fulfils all three of his aims: it is a centre of excellence; it does enormously good community work; and people have real access to the theatre, which is open at all times. It has achieved that under the direction of Jude Kelly, who has not only set an excellent standard of
theatrical production, but has created an atmosphere in which people from throughout the Leeds community can go to the theatre.
Groups often participate directly in the work of the theatre--for example, pensioners and members of ethnic minorities take part, and Jude Kelly makes use of their talents in developing the theatre. It has become a most important experience for those people. I believe that the playhouse will continue to receive Government support.
I must declare a non-remunerative interest, as I am a director of Opera North. I became a director before Opera North suffered a financial crisis in the 1980s, when the West Yorkshire council was abolished, and at a time when the council awarded extra funding to stabilise the company.
Opera North has benefited considerably from the Secretary of State's interest and the measures that he has taken. It now has three years certainty in its basic funding from the Arts Council. It is a great change for the board of the company to know that that money will be forthcoming for the following three years. Plans may be made much more constructively, further into the future. Opera North also regularly receives £1 million from local sources, in grants from Leeds city council and from the West Yorkshire grants fund. That, too, is very significant.
This year, the Secretary of State has put Opera North on the first rung of the ladder to obtaining lottery stabilisation funds. The Department is carrying out a strategic stocktake to check on the value-for-money possibilities that would result from stabilising the company using such funding. It has chosen to do so at a fortunate time: Opera North has just had a season in which, to economise, three productions--La Traviata, Katya Kabanova and Don Giovanni--were staged on one basic set. Each was well received by the public and the critics. I watched two of those productions. They were exceedingly good, and the relative lack of scenery was used to enhance the production. The box office for that period in the season came in at £95,000 above target--a very high level of support. It suggests that, in those productions, Opera North met the criteria that we used to call the three E's--the productions were efficient, effective and economic.
Supporters of Opera North are indirectly supporting the Opera North orchestra, which has a separate programme of concerts. Hon. Members have spoken about keeping northern orchestras alive. The Opera North orchestra has, in effect, replaced the Yorkshire Symphony orchestra, which died some years ago having failed to survive 18 years of Conservative Government.
The company is also involved in a good many community and educational projects. It takes opera to audiences that do not usually encounter it. One such group of audiences were people in the local prison, who certainly do not usually get to opera performances, but they became involved in working in opera in that prison. The company also performed in Sir Titus Salt's mill in Saltaire, where the local community was involved in a production. That enriched the experience of people who often would not have any parallel experience.
Opera North received help from the Conservatives in what has been called the "Mellor splurge". I am glad to say that it is now even more secure than it was then, because the Mellor splurge ended abruptly and was not continued by his Conservative successors, whereas now we have a programme that makes it plain that funding
will continue. I hope that the Secretary of State can visit the opera to see what is being done and to check for himself the value for money of the company's functioning.
I shall briefly mention the Yorkshire mining museum in Wakefield. The museum faced a constant struggle to survive after the metropolitan council was abolished. The burden of maintaining it fell primarily on the local authority in Wakefield. Although it was willing, it found it difficult to provide the funds that were needed. However, in the 13 intervening years the museum was assisted by a member of the then Government; it would not have survived without the intervention of the former Member for Harwich, Iain Sproat, who took an active interest in its work. He understood that the museum's work was unique.
The museum, at last, thinks it will exist permanently. It has been recognised as the national coal mining museum for England and the Minister had the pleasure--I hope that it was a pleasure--of visiting the museum, where he made the relevant announcements. It is going from strength to strength now that it knows that it will be part of the landscape in West Yorkshire for very many years.
There is much that we still want to do at the museum. Ministers will not be surprised to know that they will continue to hear from us. Its director, Dr. Faull, has been active in making proposals that will make the museum more accessible to the public. Baroness Lockwood, as the chairman of trustees, also takes a positive view, as does my hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield (Mr. Hinchliffe). I, too, am a member of the board of trustees--another non-pecuniary interest that I perhaps should have declared earlier.
The final subject that I wish to mention is the royal armouries museum. When the museum came to Leeds, I was a member of Leeds city council and Leeds development corporation, both of which provided support. I know that Leeds city council gave £3 million, but I do not remember how much the development corporation contributed. Both organisations believed that Leeds would be a suitable out-of-London site for the museum.
There seems to be some concern in the Department that the move has not gone well. However, I believe that the royal armouries museum has made real achievements. It has been proved right to set up a base outside London where displays can be mounted. Using the space available for displays in Leeds has enabled the Tower of London to find space for additional exhibitions in London. They have increased its visitor revenue by about 25 per cent. Therefore, this is the first year that the historic royal palaces have cost the taxpayer nothing, which is important. That would not have happened without an outpost.
Secondly, despite the rather adverse publicity that I have seen, particularly in the Evening Standard, the Leeds building has been a considerable success. It was completed on time and within budget. It attracts many visitors, although it does not achieve the numbers that were first forecast. Visitor numbers are growing, and I believe that the museum will achieve the forecast. It is estimated that it now contributes £7.5 million to the local economy.
The museum's exhibitions are very good. It holds live exhibitions in which people joust and so on with considerable skill. The average visitor to the museum
spends four hours there, which shows that there is something to attract visitors, or at least to keep them there once they have arrived. The museum is beginning to help to regenerate and improve the area in which it is situated. It was thought that that would happen.
The museum has attracted visitors despite the fact that the promised improved transport system to take people to its industrial, inner-city site has not been developed, so access is not easy for people without a car. The building has also become a superb venue for corporate entertainment and it is appreciated by the wider West Yorkshire community.
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