Colin Philpott was director of the National Media Museum from 2004 to 2012. Here he argues why it is vital and must remain open

There are compelling arguments why the National Media Museum in Bradford and its sister museums – the National Railway Museum in York and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, all currently under threat of possible closure – should stay open.

Firstly, the museum is a success story in terms of the international quality of its collections and programmes but also in terms of its popularity.

When I ran the museum from 2004 until 2012 we expanded its range from the original brief of photography, film and television to a wider media remit, taking in computer gaming and the internet.

We invested to upgrade its gallery about TV, its IMAX cinema and to create a gallery about gaming, and visitor numbers went up by more than 20 per cent in three years.

They dropped back again while there was no further investment but then, just before I left, we created the world’s first museum gallery about the history of the internet, and visitor numbers rose again.

Since the museum opened in 1983, it has averaged more than 600,000 visitors a year and, in its best years (before my time) after major investment around the Millennium, it topped one million.

So there is no reason why a museum about media, with proper investment, can’t be successful in the world’s first UNESCO City of Film – Bradford.

Secondly, it is vital to Bradford. When we commissioned independent research about four years ago, it showed that the museum attracted more than £30 million of additional tourism spending to the city – that’s money that would not otherwise come into Bradford without the museum.

This, of course, supports jobs in Bradford and also helps with the image and profile of the city. Just at the very time when there are lots of reasons to be more optimistic about Bradford’s future, including the expected start on a new shopping centre later this year, the idea that Bradford might lose one of its crown jewels is unthinkable.

Thirdly, the museum is an example of a really important political principle. Of course, it’s perfectly proper that many of our great museums and other national institutions should be concentrated in the capital city. But they don’t all have to be.

Everyone from Bermondsey to Baildon and from Westminster to Wibsey contributes to the national tax take and it is morally and politically right that the benefits of that tax revenue should be spread as far as is possible around the country.

The BBC has demonstrated this by the excellent move of a large part of its operation from London to Salford, spreading more of its economic impact outside of the M25.

At least some of our national museums should operate on the same principle.

I sympathise with the predicament facing my former colleagues in the Science Museum Group, which runs all three museums under threat.

When I was working there, I had to implement stringent financial cutbacks in operating costs, and there comes a point when it is impossible to keep salami-slicing. And I am sure my former colleagues would love, if possible, to keep all these museums open.

One of my best moments as director of the National Media Museum was when a film director stood up to introduce his film at the museum’s annual Bradford International Film Festival, and said: “I used to come here as a young boy and this museum inspired my interest in film. I never imagined that 25 years later I would be coming back to introduce my own film.”

Britain needs a national museum which inspires people about media which is such a key part of all our lives, and Bradford has established its credentials over the past three decades as the place for that museum.

The Science Museum Group trustees and politicians need to find a solution that will enable the work of inspiring the next generation of film-makers, media producers, photographers and other creatives to continue in the world’s first UNESCO City of Film.

Ironically, the National Media Museum reaches its 30th birthday this weekend. Let’s make sure it, and its sister museums in York and Manchester, have many more birthdays to celebrate in the future.