Funding cuts to Jodrell Bank Observatory are "a gamble on the future of UK science and scientific research", a presenter of The Sky at Night has said. The government has pulled £2.8m from the Cheshire site, which houses the third-largest steerable telescope in the world, putting 28 jobs at risk. Dr George Dransfield, an astrophysicist who presents the BBC astronomy show, said the decision could see the UK lose its place in "big international scientific collaborations". The Lovell Telescope, once the largest radio telescope in the world, is the largest part of a seven-telescope system in England known as the e-Merlin network. Together, they can focus on objects across deep space and help researchers work out how planets and stars form and galaxies evolve, and study other space phenomena.