We acknowledge the letter from the Faithful Durhams in last week’s Newton News, and regret their distress at the changes that have been made to the Durham Light Infantry Museum. However, a museum is not the building but the collection, and we must insist that Durham County Council has not closed the DLI Museum – it has just moved it. In fact DCC has done many things and spent a substantial amount of money trying to save and secure the Museum – measures which indeed were listed in the Faithful Durhams’ letter.
Hopefully, people will come in time to accept that the high-viz exhibition at Palace Green and the high-quality storage at Sevenhills are longterm for the best. There are three things which we would wish to emphasise: (1) Nobody is going to reduce the scattered ashes to ‘a few sods of grass’ and have sought explicit assurance on this from DCC. (2) We note that a new DLI exhibition – ‘Courage, Comrades, Community’ – has just been opened at Palace Green Library (bit.ly/2nqpW99) and would urge everybody to go and see it. (3) We had already made it one of our election promises that, if elected, we will use our Councillors’ Initiative Fund to pay the £30 fee for any community group in Great Aycliffe and Middridge which wishes to have a visit from the ‘travelling DLI exhibition’ – just get in touch after the election.
Eddy Adam, James Atkinson, John D Clare, Mike Dixon, Joan Gray, Kate Hopper and Sarah Iveson.
