Durham finds 'no slave trade or racism' links to statues and monuments after review

Durham County Council promised to carry out a review of all its monuments following a call for action in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.

Several public installations have either been toppled by demonstrators or removed by councils over recent weeks due to controversy attached to the figures they commemorate.

Simon Henig, the leader of the county council, said: “Following the Black Lives Matter protests, we carried out a desktop audit of the statues and monuments under our care and were clear that war memorials were not included within this.

Durham County Council leader Simon Henig

“The audit is now complete, and we do not believe there are any statues or monuments with connections to racism or the slave trade in County Durham.

“On June 26, we informed partners that we do not plan to take any further action.”

Coun Henig was also responding to a request by the county’s three Conservatives MPs to exclude statues of military figures from the review.

Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham; Bishop Auckland’s Dehenna Davison and Paul Howell, who officially remains a county councillor more six months after being elected MP for ex Prime Minister Tony Blair’s former Sedgefield seat, made the demand in an open letter in the national press.

As well as branding the review a ‘waste of time’ they also criticised the 2016 closure of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) museum.

Last week (June 30) plans for the DLI collection to be moved to a new home at Mount Oswald Manor were given a £150,000 boost thanks to a grant from the Wolfson Foundation.

Coun Henig added: “We are committed to celebrating County Durham’s military heritage and supporting our veterans.

“The proposed new History Centre at Mount Oswald will provide a permanent home for the DLI Collection, bringing it together with the DLI archives for the first time since the 1990s.”

The county council’s Liberal Democrat group have also insisted there must now be a ‘lasting memorial’ to former service men and women at the former DLI museum site, near Durham County Hall.

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