Rotherwas Ribbon re-surfaces!

Many politicians have called for an end to Regional Development Agencies and The Taxpayer’s Alliance is scathing, to say the least, about  one in particular – “Advantage West Midlands”.  It’s really worth a look …  

We aren’t fans either. You may recall it was Advantage West Midlands that insisted on building a road (that a government Inspector twice said wasn’t needed) over the Rotherwas Ribbon (that the County Archaeo said was as important as Stonehenge). See here… Of course, that’s all old news now, the road went ahead sweet as a nut, English Heritage having declined to schedule the Ribbon in time.

All that being so, we aren’t overjoyed to see on Page 67 of English Heritage’s just-published Annual Report and Accounts that Advantage West Midlands are listed as one of the 26 “Grant Making and Public Bodies” that have given EH money. No doubt there are some technical or accounting reasons why that should be but at first sight the fact that taxpayer-funded heritage wreckers are handing over taxpayers’ funds to support taxpayer-funded heritage guardians is a bit irritating to anyone that supports heritage guardianship – or pays tax.