We’ve been here before though. I was looking around for more information and started reading an article in the Times on it, everything was the same but some of the names were wrong. I then noticed the article was headed March 2008 !
The annual cost back then was £2.5m so I would say £2.8M today is pretty good cost control.
Call me a sceptic but I reckon it will suddenly be “saved” and the public will forget about it. meanwhile the arguably perhaps even more damaging cuts will be applied elsewhere in UK astronomy and particle physics. We can perhaps hope though that this might prompt a debate about Britain’s role in maintaining some credibility in science in the west given what is going on the the US
Cheers
Robin