Agenda

1.    Procedural Motion

Council agrees, because of urgency, to suspend the procedural requirement of 7 clear working days’ notice (Rule 22 and 106 of the Council Procedure Rules apply) and to allow motion concerning the relocation of Locomotion No. 1 (as set out below) to be moved and considered at the Council meeting on 30 January 2020.

2. Locomotion No. 1

This Council notes that, on 27 September 1825, Locomotion No.1 pulled the first train on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.  For more than 160 years Locomotion No 1 has been in Darlington and is regarded as one of the most important parts of the Towns railway heritage. With funding from the Tees Valley Combined Authority, the Council has major plans to create a revamped railway heritage quarter centred around the Head of Steam Museum. Locomotion No 1 is by far, the most important part of the Town’s railway legacy and it will form the centre piece of the railway heritage quarter and the celebrations of the bi centenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

Locomotion No.1 has been on long-term loan from the National Railway Museum (NRM) which is part of the Science Museum Group. The NRM has now announced that it is planning to relocate Locomotion No. 1 from its Darlington home to Shildon.

Council therefore resolves and agrees that :-

(a)  this Council is outraged by the decision of the National Railway Museum (NRM) to seek to relocate Locomotion No 1 from the Head of Steam Museum in Darlington and relocate it to Shildon;

(b)  this Council urges the NRM to reconsider its decision; and

(c)  this Council will use all and every means available to it to oppose the decision made by the National Railway Museum.