Agenda item

Lili Tabiner, Great Central Railway presents a report outlining details of the project to include progress and funding information.

Bill Ford, Managing Director of the Great Central Railway will be invited to address the commission and respond to questions.

The Commission are invited to discuss and note the contents of the report.

The Chair introduced the item and invited Lili Tabiner and Bill Ford both from Great Central Railway (GCR) to address the commission.

Bill Ford delivered a presentation setting out the background and provided a brief overview of the project which included the following points:

·       GCR had undergone major development since 2008; there was a strong team of people behind GCR who had moved the concept on considerably.

·       Since 2008 GCR had raised £9.1 million and had the benefit of four generous stakeholders. The money raised was invested into the superstructure of the business over the past 3 years and GCR had begun a programme of expansion.

·       The first project “Bridging the Gap” would reinstate a 500 metre section of track in Loughborough to reconnect 2 sections creating a main line of 18 miles and a link to Ruddington.

·       The second project would see the new Heritage Museum built at GCR terminus, Leicester North. The Museum was a partnership between GCR, Leicester City Council, the National Railway Museum (NRM) York and Leicestershire County Council.

·       In May 2015 the museum was awarded a Round 1 pass from the Heritage Lottery Fund with £10m to be allocated after the successful completion of the Development Stage.

·       The vision was to change from steam to theme park and encourage tourism, in 2007 most visitors were steam enthusiasts but since then the “product” had been developed for families who now formed 80% of visitors. GCR intended to continue to develop the tourist trade and the museums location formed a natural Tourism Gateway between the City and the County.

·       An important design feature of the museum would be to see actual steam engines coming into it and this would be unique.

·       In total the museum project would cost £17.7m and once opened it was expected to: double the visitors to GCR from 130,000 to 250,000 each year, create an additional 10 full time jobs in GCR, support a further 700 jobs across Leicestershire and contribute £44m to the local economy.

Members discussed the project which included the following comments:

·       7 allotments had been “lost” to the development as the scheme ran at a 45 degree angle however once completed there would be some land at the side of the burial ground that would be reinstated as 12 allotment plots. It was noted that the project did not affect the cemetery or any burial ground at all.

·       GCR were looking at the whole of the railway as a living museum with the core at the terminus in North West Leicester and the project would be incorporated through to Quorn and Loughborough. There would be a link between the working railway and the museum which would develop the story of each station: Quorn (Wartime), Rothley (Edwardian) and Loughborough (Victorian).

·       It was anticipated there would be no disruption to residents living nearby when the project started, there was an existing access road but the project would also carry out a traffic impact assessment during the development stage.

·       GCR were in talks with Vintage Trains Birmingham to look at opportunities to connect to heritage trains.

·       The project was being developed as a fantastic day out and would be encouraging people to come in to Leicester to stay.

·       The Delivery stage had earmarked a certain amount, leaving £5.3 million to be secured, GCR were developing a fundraising strategy including trusts, foundations and donors and had a very good track record with experience of putting bids to trusts and delivering on funding. GCR also had several very generous stakeholders, one had already promised £1.5 million towards the project and GCR were confident about securing funding.

·       As one of the partners the National Railway Museum were helping with mentoring on running a museum, appointing a senior curator and they had agreed to help with collections and archiving. In terms of cash support NRM were restrained because they were public funded but their “in kind” support was second to none.

·       Re: curation of museum – Loan agreements would be entered into. Initial research into defining exhibits had started and would be taken further; there would be consultation to establish main stories which would define objects and artefacts.

·       GCR were also working on links with schools/universities focusing on science, technology and maths. The museum would have a research facility but not archives. GCR were also looking at how to use Greenacres which had class room facilities and there was a suggestion to develop a foundation course to be studied at Greenacres giving a stepping stone to other universities. GCR also wanted to give opportunities and practical skills to people in woodturning and toolmaking.

·       The museum would use modern technology like that used in the King Richard III visitor centre for visual displays, the project would look to tap into local businesses doing interactive displays, lighting etc and hoped to learn by the experiences had by those involved at King Richard III visitor centre.

The Chair thanked Bill Ford and Lili Tabiner for their interesting presentation.