Town 'must get over loss' of £10m railway museum
A town must get over the loss of a proposed £10 million railway museum to a neighbour and work out how to make the most of the proposals, councillors have been told.
Charnwood Borough Council had been working with Great Central Railway (GCR) and Leicestershire County Council in the hope of buying land in Loughborough where the museum could be built.
But a suitable and affordable site could not be found and the railway has now gone into partnership with Leicester City Council and the National Railway Museum, in York, to develop the museum near GCR's Leicester North station, near Station Road, Birstall.
At a meeting of the borough council's cabinet, Labour leader Councillor Jewel Miah asked why efforts to secure a site in Loughborough had failed.
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Council leader David Slater said efforts had continued right up to the time the announcement was made.
Principal problems had been that sites around GCR's Loughborough station could not accommodate the level of visitor growth anticipated.
He also said that while other land might be available, it was in private ownership or housing land that was too expensive for GCR.
But Coun Blain said: "It is not all bad news for Loughborough. There will be an increase in passengers and footfall at this end of the line.
"We have to explore how to make the most of the train passengers at this end. It is disappointing but brings with it a huge opportunity."
The plan would create about 100 jobs in construction and about 50 full-time posts at the museum.
The museum would show locomotives, carriages and other artefacts from the York collection, one of the largest of its kind in the world.
Comments
by Bob491
Friday, January 04 2013, 1:13AM
“It's a pity that they couldn't also extend the line southwards so they could build the Museum near to Abbey Pumping Station and the Space Centre.”
by colarrey
Thursday, January 03 2013, 2:52PM
“It's a pity the GCR doesn't extend northwards and link up with the line to East Leake and Ruddington.”
by jonger
Thursday, January 03 2013, 1:17PM
“Its not Loughboroughs loss, it's The Great Central Railways gain, Loughborough will still gain great benefit from the museum where ever its placed on the GCR, its much better to gain the museum at one end of the line than loose it altogether if the land is not available in Loughborough so whilst it is disappointing it couldn't be located in Loughborough just be thankful its being brought to the railway at all.”
by rhino
Wednesday, January 02 2013, 6:17PM
“This is nothing short of daylight robbery, after all the years of hard work in Loughborough Leicester have nicked it all for their own credit.”
by oldhenry
Wednesday, January 02 2013, 3:56PM
“Amazing as the land near the GCR in Loughborough was a former tip! Very desirable , I am sure. Leicester have trumped Charnwood again on this as when Leicester CC built Birstall Staion it was a bold move to grab the GCR back, after knocking dowm as much of it as they could.”