Former Chief Minister Tony Brown OBE has called the government’s handling of the old Castletown police station “a classic of Tynwald and Government having no heritage policy”.
Brown called the final decision to put the police station on the open market “unbelievable”, stating that “Once it is sold it is likely to be lost to the nation for at least 100 years!”
The property was originally sold by Tynwald to Manx National Heritage at a commercial rate which Brown claims prevented it from being properly developed.
“They should have sold it for 25p which is what they did for other heritage sites like the old House of Keys, Laxey Wheel and Castle Rushen.
“All they did was create a debt on a statutory body of roughly £250,000 that could have been avoided and could have been used to convert the premises into a police museum.
The current Castletown Commissioners chair argues that this isn’t an isolated event, and pointed to the case of Peggy, the oldest schooner vessel in the world.
Brown argues that the government provided no funding for the Nautical Museum to return Peggy home in Castletown, and as a result “it now is kept in a shed in Braddan.”
Brown said: “I’m concerned that there’s no heritage policy at all.
“Ultimately it protects our tourism industry because that’s what people come over to see.”