... as National Trust cashes in on White Cliff- edge Brexit!
THEY are a symbol of Britain’s enduring freedom – but for the National Trust, the famous White Cliffs of Dover are also becoming a major cash cow in the run-up to Brexit.
The conservation charity tasked with protecting the country’s most beloved landmarks has told broadcasters that they have to pay to point their cameras at the 350ft cliff face as our historic departure from the EU approaches.
Television news crews hoping to use the iconic chalk vista in their Brexit coverage have been told to cough up £200 every time they want to film the cliffs, leaving producers fuming.
BBC sources told The Mail on Sunday that National Trust media handlers sent them a stern reminder that they must pay following an increase in requests to film at the Kent site ahead of exit day on March 29.
The Trust’s website boasts that the eight-mile coastline around the Port of Dover, officially designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is ‘an instantly recognisable icon of Britain’ and the perfect film location ‘to tell the story of our nation’.
Television industry insiders have expressed surprise that the levy has been extended to TV news rather than big-budget motion pictures and documentaries. One BBC journalist said: ‘ They have suddenly got very militant about this. They must be making a fortune.’
Breaking news stories, such as the current migrant boat crisis, are exempt from what TV producers are dubbing the ‘Brexit Tax’.
The National Trust purchased their first stretch of the cliffs – which served as an emblem of Britain’s defiance of the Nazis in the Second World War – in 1968.
In 1999 it built a visitors’ centre, and the Trust now charges members of the public £4 to park a car at the site.
Last year it raised more than £ 1 million to acquire a further 7.5 million square feet of coastline by the cliffs amid fears that the land could be snapped up by property developers.
The fundraising push was spear headed by Dame Vera Lynn, 101, who sang the wartime anthem ( There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover. Nicknamed the Forces Sweetheart, Dame Vera thanked the donors for helping to save the ‘national icon’.
Last night the National Trust defended its decision to charge all TV crews, saying that all the money raised would be reinvested at the site.
A spokesman insisted the charge was ‘due to the inevitable additional staff time these requests take to accommodate’.
He added :‘ This has been National Trust policy for seven years, is not location- specific and has absolutely nothing to do with Brexit.’