AS a result of the global economic crisis, times are hard in Jersey – but just how hard are they?

Recent redundancies and warnings of future deficits in public revenues are clearly indicative of present problems and those that might lie around the corner. However, it is clear that, as a community, we are hardly down to our last shilling. Compared with many other jurisdictions, we are, in fact, still doing rather well.

Against this background, the revelation that Jersey Heritage is so short of funds that the Maritime Museum, the Occupation Tapestry Gallery and Hamptonne, our museum of country life, will have to close next month amounts to a considerable shock.

Indeed, if these resources were to be allowed to close it would be an admission that we are in deeper trouble than the available economic data would suggest. It would also indicate that the lip service paid in the Strategic Plan and elsewhere to the importance of Island heritage is just that – hollow words signifying very little.

But support for heritage sites such as the Maritime Museum and Hamptonne is about far more than an expression of confidence in the Island or mere sentimental attachment to reminders of the past. There are sound commercial reasons why funding must be found to ease the Heritage Trust’s acute difficulties.

In spite of the primacy of financial services, tourism is still an important pillar of the economy and, in turn, our cultural and historic assets are a major pillar of the tourist industry.

The days when holidaymakers came here in their droves for bucket-and-spade holidays spiced with access to low-duty alcohol and tobacco are long gone, but the Jersey offering remains a powerful one on the strength of more upmarket attractions.

The strength and depth of that offering will, alas, decline disastrously if we allow heritage sites to put up the shutters and cease not only trading but also their vital work of keeping our rich and fascinating past alive for Islanders and visitors.

As always, government will be faced by the task of assessing the merit of all sorts of rival claims to funds as they try to make sense of public finances. At present, competition for cash is more intense than ever. Nevertheless, there are compelling reasons why the Heritage Trust must be seen as a special case.

Those who hold the purse strings must look beyond the surface nature of our heritage sites and accept that what is good for our museums is also vital to a diversified economy and indispensable to any community aspiring, as Jersey is so often said to be, to a strong international identity.