(30 May 2024, 9:55 am)Adrian wrote It's an awful end to perhaps the most progressive preservation group up here, but I think it ultimately highlights that you're never safe, unless you either have a long-term tenancy agreement (with no break option) or you own your own building.

Like most things though, people want to enjoy something, but generally aren't prepared to financially support the existence. The vast majority of bus preservation is still carried out from the owners pocket, though appreciating that is sometimes by choice.

NEBPT are also struggling for accommodation, due to the deteriorating condition of their place at Wardley/Felling, and they've been trying to source their own building for as long as I can remember.

You have to wonder if the various preservation groups wouldn't be better off joining forces and getting the economies of scale that could come from combining resources and sharing a space.  Appreciate there will be personalities and history at play, and risks of vandalism/loss of everything if anything went wrong...and that the geography might not work for a NE-wide approach but there's several T&W based groups each with their own sites and challenges as you point out.  I know things like lottery funding have supported some groups but presumably not to the scale needed, more for individual restorations.