Many social media posts have been circulated and several press releases issued over the past year or so artfully suggesting that the Tory-led Coalition currently in control of Durham County Council is about to deliver on its promise to ‘reopen the DLI’ museum. In addition there have been a lot of misleading claims made by the Coalition in the local press lately about the DLI ‘re-opening’.
As it turns out none of the claims are true. They are nothing more than deliberately misleading background noise created by the Coalition and its dwindling band of Lib Dem and so-called ‘Independent’ supporters in county hall who have already run out of ideas just one year into their chaotic administration and have now resorted to low tactics to try and cling on to what rapidly diminishing credibility they have left.
The truth was finally revealed at a full meeting of Durham County Council held in county hall on Wednesday 22 June 2022. At the meeting the Coalition had been promoting their new council plan which is intended to deliver the council’s vision over the next few years. On page 21 of the plan the Coalition makes a bold statement that the DLI is to be ‘refurbished and reopened’.
However, this misleading narrative completely contradicts the council’s actual position on the DLI collection which, as confirmed in a council press release recently, will be placed on permanent display in the new History Centre at Mount Oswald on the other side of the city. I published an article on these pages at the time, just in case it had been forgotten about by Coalition members and their Lib Dem and so-called ‘Independent’ supporters in county hall: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-county-durham-history-centre-and.html
As soon as the DLI collection was mentioned at Wednesday morning’s meeting I put a straightforward question to the Coalition; because there had been so much confusion recently as a result of mixed-messages and deliberately misleading claims I asked outright where the DLI collection is going to be put on display permanently. Will it be at the former DLI building as promised by the Coalition? Or would it be put on display, along with the DLI archives, under one roof in the new History Centre at Mount Oswald as intended by the previous Labour administration?
After much waffling, contradiction and confusion amongst Coalition members the truth eventually emerged. The DLI collection will be placed on permanent display at the Mount Oswald History Centre when it opens to the public next year. In addition this initiative will reunite the DLI exhibits and archives under one roof for the first time since the 1990s.
At Wednesday’s meeting I also pointed out that I’d attended a meeting of the county council’s corporate overview and scrutiny management board on the previous Friday (17 June) where the minutes of the last board meeting had been endorsed by all members present. To drive the point home the minutes of that previous meeting had also confirmed that the DLI collection would be reunited with the archives at the new Mount Oswald History Centre. This is the relevant section from the minutes:
The point wasn’t pursued any further by Coalition members because they know the cat is at last out of the bag - and to make matters worse for them they also know that the new History Centre at Mount Oswald was conceived, commissioned and built by the previous Labour-run administration with the intention all along of accommodating the DLI collection and archive in a prestige setting more appropriate to the image and memory of the DLI regiment.
So next time you see or hear any reference to the DLI ‘reopening’, please bear in mind that the building where the DLI was once displayed is being converted into a high-end, silver service restaurant and art gallery. The DLI collection and archives themselves will be brought together under one roof at the new Mount Oswald History Centre as intended all along by the previous administration.
It has always been in the Coalition's political interests to create confusion and stoke division over the DLI collection and display. But their deceit has been revealed for all to see. And another Coalition promise has been broken.
