Prime Minister Andy Burnham has vowed to save the UK’s largest telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory.<\/p>\n
The Lovell telescope, which has stood in Cheshire since 1957, is the world’s third-largest steerable radio telescope.<\/p>\n
But in July this year, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) said the site would not be prioritised for further funding after its current agreement ended in March 2028.<\/p>\n
Burnham said: “Every one of my generation went on a school trip to Jodrell Bank, and there is no way that we can see its demise, and it won’t happen under my government.”<\/p>\n
UKRI said its decision for the site was “the result of a comprehensive, evidence-based prioritisation process”.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister spoke of his determination to save the site after being asked a question about its future in the House of Commons. <\/p>\n
Congleton MP Sarah Russell, whose constituency includes the Jodrell Bank site, said it “is facing a significant problem in the medium term because of funding cuts”.<\/p>\n
She called on Burnham and No 10 North to work alongside her and Macclesfield MP Tim Roca to address the issue.<\/p>\n
Burnham said: “I know there are changes that have been made in relation to research funding, but Jodrell Bank is a heritage asset for the country, as well as a research asset.”<\/p>\n
He said he would set up the meeting she requested, adding: “There must be a way to save Jodrell Bank, and I give a commitment today, at this despatch box, we will find it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Andy Burnham has vowed to save the UK’s largest telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-757212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}