County Durham Labour chiefs today hit out at proposals to reopen the city’s former DLI Museum building as a high-end eatery.
County Durham’s Conservative MPs have called for £125,000 secured via the City of Culture 2025 bid to be used to help reopen the facility, closed in 2016. Tories Richard Holden, Dehenna Davison, and Paul Howell have written to the County Council asking it to use the funding for the museum project.
Labour Leader Carl Marshall labelled the proposals, “shameful, wasteful and regressive…”
He said:
“Reopening the DLI Museum is just the latest in a parade of shameful, wasteful and regressive decisions from this embarrassingly chaotic Tory-led Coalition running Durham County Council.
“These MPs are celebrating a windfall of £125,000, but reopening the DLI will cost County Durham taxpayers £15m. While working families rely on foodbanks, people can’t afford to heat homes and many struggle to cope the highest tax hikes in generations, this Coalition is prioritising the reopening a museum that has been replaced by a far superior facility – it shows just how out of touch they really are.
“This Council spent £17m creating “STORY”, the history centre at Mt Oswald’s that houses the county archive and exhibits well over 50% of the DLI collection at any one time, the old DLI couldn’t display more than 6%! The DLI trustees took the decision to close the museum because the building was falling apart after years of Tory austerity, it wasn’t fit for purpose and it couldn’t house anywhere near enough of the collection. They also knew we intended to create a new history centre, designed to meet their specific needs.
“The Conservative Government has become adept at pulling the wool over people’s eyes, but it seems their County Durham colleagues are equally skilled in the dark art of deception. Like the UK Government, this Tory-led Coalition is shackling Durham in chains and dragging us back to the dark ages with each regressive decision it makes.”
Labour Deputy Leader, Cllr Rob Crute, added:
“It must be stressed that these plans are not about “reopening the DLI” – in fact, they’re doing nothing of the sort. What has been discussed so far is simply the repurposing the site as a high-end silver-service restaurant, well beyond the reach of most struggling households in County Durham.
“The DLI collection itself is going to Mount Oswald and The Story – a Labour initiative that brings together the collection for the first time in decades. County Durham has thousands of other local cultural interests and projects that the Coalition could have been supported to have a greater impact on communities, but no – once again they take the regressive step.
“Still, I’m sure those families who are currently queueing at foodbanks will welcome the news that rather than help them, the County Council has decided instead to fund a restaurant catering for only for the highest earners.”