Bletchley Park receives funding boost

The funding drive to save World War Two codebreaking centre Bletchley Park has been given another financial boost.

The trust has secured £600,000 of new funding from English Heritage and Milton Keynes Council.

At the end of last year, English Heritage pledged £330,000 to help restore the historic site. It also promised £100,000 per year for three years if another donor could be found to match this sum. Tomorrow Milton Keynes Council will announce that it is stepping in to do so.

Last August Computeractive reported on the desperate need for funds to preserve the historic buildings where Allied codebreakers worked in secrecy to decrypt messages sent by the Axis powers in World War Two.

At the time Simon Greenish, director of Bletchley Park, said: "We need to solve some serious problems. Our income is £1m a year; our current upkeep costs are also running at £1m a year but this doesn’t cover all the work that needs to be done."

Today he hailed the new funding as "another huge step forward for Bletchley Park. This vital endorsement takes us one step closer to achieving our aim of creating a world-class educational and heritage site reflecting Bletchley Park’s crucial contribution to the outcome of WW2 and the 20th Century."

Councillor Vanessa McPake, Milton Keynes Council’s cabinet member responsible for heritage and culture, said the site could be an asset for tourism in the area.

"In this time of economic downturn more people are likely to be holidaying in the UK, so Bletchley Park has a real role to play in supporting the economy of Milton Keynes, as well as educating us all with their excellent exhibits and special events," she said.

Last September two American IT firms, PGP and IBM, also announced major donations to the site’s National Museum of Computing.