Media reports in the last week claim plans for a Battle of Britain museum at Bentley Priory are "on ice" because of difficulties in selling the development.

Can I suggest it is now squarely down to the Government to provide the funding to ensure that future generations are able to visit a museum in Bentley Priory and tour the building which, quite literally, allowed us to keep our freedom.

When the estate containing this historic building was sold off for a tidy sum by the Government, there was no thought given to how the heritage of Bentley Priory would be maintained.

Harrow Council never owned this site,but we stepped in and put in planning controls to ensure that a museum would be a key part of this development going forward.

Given the current depression, that is clearly not going to happen for the foreseeable future. And so the rooms from which the RAF orchestrated the Spitfires and Hurricanes that repelled the Nazis are now mothballed while we wait for the property market to pick up.

These are rooms and history which should be permanently on show for everyone in Britain to see.

Surely Bentley Priory,the home of the Battle of Britain, is deserving of a Lottery grant or some other form of Government funding.

If the Government feels able to bail out banks beggared by their own irresponsibility,surely they can support a building whose inhabitants live and died to secure our freedom during a critical few weeks in 1940.

COUNCILLOR MARILYN ASHTON

Portfolio holder for planning, development and enterprise

Harrow Council