THE world-renowned Wedgwood collection must be safeguarded from sale, according to a member of the family.

Anne Makeig-Jones, a direct descendant of Josiah Wedgwood, is calling on the Government to protect thousands of rare items from being split up and sold off.

The collection at the Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston is under threat after being saddled with a £134 million pension fund deficit claim from the Wedgwood Group Pension Plan – even though only a handful of the 7,000 scheme members worked for the museum.

It was thought the company scheme would be taken over by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) following the collapse of Wedgwood and sister firm Royal Doulton in 2009.

But the PPF could not legally accept the scheme as there was still a surviving solvent organisation with fund members connected to it – the Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston.

Lawyers for the museum, which is now in administration, argue its treasures cannot be sold off because they are protected by "permanent endowment" status. But it will be months before a judge makes the final decision.

Mrs Makeig-Jones, who is granddaughter of Cecil Wedgwood, the first Lord mayor of Stoke-on-Trent, said the museum had been legally independent from the manufacturing side of the business since the 1960s.

The 76-year-old Cheadle resident said: "All the family believed it was protected. All the papers were drawn up by the lawyers that the museum was completely separate from the factory.

"We knew the risk of the company failing – after all it nearly happened on a few occasions.

"If people find the things they have left to the nation can then be taken back, they will think twice.

"We have lost all the other factory collections, this is the last big one of this quality left.

"The museum could pay for the handful of Wedgwood pensioners employed there, but to ask them to pay for thousands of others is ridiculous. It's pension law overriding public law.

"The collection is internationally important and the Government should definitely change the rules."

Directors of the pension fund say the PPF will not step in until unprotected museum assets are sold to help fill the shortfall.

But even if the thousands of ceramic pieces, documents and pictures are sold, the PPF will still have to find the vast majority of money for pensioners.

And Mrs Makeig-Jones believes the loss of the collection would damage North Staffordshire as a whole.

She said: "It's a very valuable collection. It's not just the showy things, we have got things like the results of Josiah's experiments and his experiment books.

"It is very important for the area. People don't really come to the Midlands and the Black country for the scenic beauty, but they still come here because of places like the Wedgwood Museum.

"I want the museum's collection preserved for North Staffordshire and for the country.

"Most of the records of the industry have been lost and collections like Doulton have been sold off because they weren't protected.

"We thought we had protected the Wedgwood collection and that it was safe in the museum."