THE offer from Durham County Council to contribute over a million pounds to the restoration of the Historic Miners Hall in Redhills, Durham, is great news (Echo, Jul 3).

As cabinet minister Joy Allen says, County Durham's proud mining heritage helped shape our landscape and its closure would be a significant loss to our community.

Hmm, what happened to any funding to help save the DLI Museum? It had plenty of parking and was home to a million memories and many thousands of artefacts from a time our brave ancestors helped to not only shape the North-East but save the country.

Or saving the historic Windlestone Hall which could have been converted into a magnificent museum for our mining, war, railway etc heritage all under one roof with masses of parking instead of letting it fall into a derelict state and giving it away to a scoundrel.

Yes, this amazing building needs saving but don't tell me that the industry that raped and pillaged the country, removing billions of tonnes of coal from its bowels, couldn't pay to renovate this relic of its important historically, if controversial, past.

Well, I suppose at least it's a million pound less the powers that be at the council can waste on their folly – that white elephant at Chester-le-Street, the cricket ground.

John Cumberland, Rushyford