Auction shows council incompetence
The Brooke Robinson auction is yet more disturbing evidence of incompetence and lack of planning on Dudley Council’s part.
First, against widespread opposition, they move the museum away from a place where people are likely to visit to a remote out-of-town location. Then they discover that the Brooke Robinson Collection has to stay where it is, due to the terms of its bequest.
Then they find that despite immense storage capacity at the £7 million new archives building they can’t find room for the collection’s items at the new purpose built archives building. So the solution is to sell off the most valuable items – but then buy new ones to replace them. Councillor Kettle’s assertion that Dudley won’t spend anything on the sale is very misleading – what about all the staff and legal services’ time spent liaising with the Brooke Robinson trustees over the sale?
They now have a building in the town centre that was supposed to be sold after the museum moved out...now they can’t and they want to display the Brooke Robinson collection in the town centre. So why close and move the museum in the first place?
Martin Jones
Sedgley
