National Railway Museum – response to access arrangements

The National Railway Museum extension has been given planning consent.

YoCo formally objected to the proposed arrangements for limited public access through the extended NRM. In our objection letter we argued the following:                                   

YoCo’s community plan for York Central, developed from the My York Central public engagement of 2018 sets out a future where York Central is built around pleasant and direct pedestrian and cycling routes, enabled by a strategy to remove motor vehicles as far as possible from the area. In this respect we applaud the closure of Leeman Road to motor vehicles, but wonder why the opportunity has so far been missed to build upon the design aim of making active travel a joy and add to it the experience of passing easily through one of the world’s greatest museums.

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YoCo – and the people of the city – have a bold plan for York Central and we’d invite the NRM to be equally bold in reshaping the way in which it welcomes people. 24 hour open access through the new building – without bag checks, without banning people walking dogs, without sending people on a lengthy diversion out of museum hours – can be achieved, and should be. 

We now support the Justice for Leeman Road Campaign in exploring whether there is a case for a Judicial Review. You can contribute towards their crowdfunder here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/justice4leemanroad/

YoCo acknowledges the important role of the museum in providing a focus to the railway heritage of the York Central site and its aspirations to both improve the experience for visitors and extend its capacity in engineering education. The significance of the 50th anniversary is also clear. However, the proposals will have a permanent impact not just on the museum but on very substantial existing and future communities, and it is not too late to revisit the proposals and work in partnership towards a more ambitious proposal.