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Darlington Crown Street Library

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A couple of years ago Darlington Borough Council had serious plans to close the Museum and sell the North Road Station building for some other use. Had the Council not backed down in the face of the outcry that met this proposal Darlington would not have a Railway Museum now- an unthinkable prospect given the town's central role in railway history and the approaching 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

Now Darlington's Crown Street Library is threatened with closure. The Library was a gift to Darlington from Edward Pease the son of Joseph Pease, MP and S&DR co-owner, and grandson of another Edward "The Father of Railways" himself. The Crown Street site, building (now Grade 2 listed) and contents were all paid for with a £10,000 bequest from him. The Council plans to sell off the building and operate a reduced library service from the Dolphin Centre. As happened when the Museum was threatened this proposal was greeted with dismay and a great deal of support has been voiced by local groups and media particularly since the cost of the move is expected to be around £750,000. (How many people think that figure is likely to go down by the way? Show of hands? Thought not.)

In the face of strong local feeling and a campaign supported by authors including Philippa Gregory, Anne Fine and Gervase Phinn the Council ratified its decision to close Crown Street and move services to the Dolphin Centre. Campaigners prepared for legal action retaining lawyer Michael Imperato who has a track record helping to keep libraries open including the Church Stretton Library in Shropshire. The argument was that the decision was made without due process or proper public consultation, alternatives had not been properly evaluated, the estimate for projected savings was unrealistic and that the proposed service would not be to the standard the Council is obliged to meet.

On 6 September the Council announced that it would set aside the decision (at considerable expense) with a fresh decision to be made by the end of the year. A spokesman admitted that the potential expense of legal action had influenced this new development. It has emerged that Crown Street is held on trust for a public library. Major decisions about it may need to be taken by trustees and require permission from the Charities Commission. The Library's sole corporate trustee is the Council Cabinet so the full Council may not have had the right to decide on the its future anyway.

The recent developments represent a stay of execution rather than a reprieve. You can find much more information on the Weird Wild Web for yourself but a starting point is the on-line petition set up by Helen Boynton at change.org.

The Friends does not seek to criticise the Council. It still has to operate within the budget cuts that made it consider closing the Museum after all so it will have to stop paying for something and what exactly that will be is an unenviable decision. We would however urge any Darlington resident to add your voice to the calls to keep the Library at Crown Street open. There may be some way of reducing running expenses the Council has not considered or paid for services that could be introduced.

This page previously credited the founding of the library to a bequest from Edward "The Father of Railways" Pease. Your web-master is grateful to James Adams for pointing out the error which, apparently, is not uncommon but that is not really an excuse. He advises thinking of them as Edward "Railway" Pease and Edward "Libraries" Pease and has a simplified Pease family tree posted here. for anyone who may be interested.


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