Minutes:
The Council noted a report from Councillor A Hopgood, Leader of the Council as follows:
Councillor Hopgood said that earlier in the month, The Story, the Council’s new culture, heritage and registration venue, opened at Mount Oswald which was a milestone moment in an incredibly exciting project. The response received so far had been overwhelmingly positive. The Story was a place where County Durham’s heritage was preserved for future generations. A place where people could not only discover more about the past, but record their own milestones, whether that be registering a birth, getting married or renewing their vows. There was a free exhibition space and café. None of this would have been possible without the hard work of teams across the council, volunteers and our partners and she wanted to say a big thank to everyone involved.
Councillor Hopgood encouraged everyone to visit The Story.
Councillor Marshall congratulated everyone on a job very well done and asked when the coalition was going to come clean on the business case and £20m costs for the new build at the DLI, given that The Story had a full interactive display of the DLI, had involvement from veterans at the opening events, and that members of the public were over the moon about the proud stories being shared of the former County regiment. In response, the Leader said that the sale of the HQ site had helped develop the DLI museum and all information was discussed in meetings and within the Cabinet reports.
Councillor Wood asked if the thanks extended to the previous Labour leadership. The Leader re-iterated that she had thanked all of those involved. She also commented that the current Labour Leader could have attended the opening ceremony.
In response to a question from Councillor Martin, the Leader of the Council would be happy to extend an invitation to the newly elected MPs to The Story.
Councillor Hall commented that he did not think the Leaders response to the questions asked, was appropriate as she was accusing other Members of not reading the Cabinet papers to avoid answering questions. He referred to the £19 million capital from the sale of the HQ that they were using for the new DLI building and the £600,000 that they were going to fund, because it was going to make a loss every year. Councillor Hall asked if it was ever considered to use a small fraction of that money to extend the DLI exhibit at the Story. The Leader said that they could only extend within a certain space due to the land being on a brownfield site. She re-iterated the point that the Cabinet papers were available for all to read and the whole process had been open and transparent.