I WAS sad to read of the demise of our historic electricity museum in Christchurch, justified by the comment of the owners Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) that it could not afford the necessary seven figure sum redevelopment works.

Such a contrast to the recently announced success story of the Eling Tide Mill.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has allocated £56,000 towards the cost of transforming Eling Tide Mill – and council chiefs hope eventually to be awarded a total of £1.2m.

The background to that success was that in 1975 the Mill was bought by New Forest District Council, who began work to save it from collapse and to restore it as a site of some industrial archaeological importance.

Perhaps the way forward is for Christchurch Borough Council (CBC) to buy the electricity museum and run it along the lines of the Red House Museum with a small number of paid staff backed by volunteers.

Perhaps CBC will be charged a very high price as SSE, the energy company, has revealed a leap in profits of almost 40 per cent, just a month after announcing a nine per cent increase in bills.

The UK’s second-largest generator of electricity said its £398m half-year profit was necessary to “make investments that keep the lights on”.

Shame that the SSE electricity museum in Christchurch has to go to keep their profits so high.

GEOFF BANTOCK, Rowan Drive, Christchurch