Bluebird restoration halted amid legal dispute

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-51281046

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Work to restore Donald Campbell's record-breaking Bluebird has been halted amid an ongoing legal row, the team behind its rebuild has said.

The hydroplane's wreckage was recovered from the Lake District's Coniston Water in 2001 by engineer Bill Smith.

However, disagreements over its ownership and how it should be displayed have led to tensions.

Earlier this month, Mr Campbell's daughter, Gina, called for the craft to be returned to Coniston.

The Bluebird Project, led by North Shields-based Mr Smith, said its team of volunteers would "cease all operations of the restoration... for the foreseeable future".

"This is due to contractual and other matters that we fully believed to be adequately covered but which now appear to require further work," its statement added.

The Campbell Family Trust gifted the wreckage of Bluebird to Coniston's Ruskin Museum in 2006 and a wing was built to display it once it was restored.

It was agreed the work would be carried out by Mr Smith. However, he says the Bluebird Project now co-owns the craft having added new parts.

"My concern is some of the focus has been lost, especially in the last few weeks since Gina's comments, so I took the executive decision to shut up shop," he said.

"The museum own the wreckage, they don't own the rest. The sooner they get round the table, the sooner this can get sorted."

The Bluebird Project's statement came a week after the museum published the 2006 deed of gift and a letter detailing the terms of the rebuild on its website.

Jeff Carroll, vice-chair of the Ruskin Museum board of trustees, said the halting of work "does not alter our position".

"We still want the boat back to Coniston at the museum that spent £800,000 to display it," he said.

He added the organisation had "made compromises" including around Bluebird running in public.

However, Mr Smith said he rejected the proposals over concerns safety measures would not be in place to prevent damage while on display at the museum.

Donald Campbell was killed on 4 January 1967 as he attempted to break his own water speed record on Coniston.