THE chair of a jury which will decide on the design of a £16.5 million new Central Hall at York's National Railway Museum visited a display of the five shortlisted entries yesterday - and urged residents and visitors to do the same.

Models and images of the design concepts are being exhibited in the museum’s Great Hall until March 29 - with people able to give their views until February 23 by filling out a comment slip or by emailing the competition organisers.

But most visitors yesterday appeared to show more interest in the steam locos surrounding them than the displays, although one person had filled in a post-it note saying 'natural light' in answer to the question 'what do you want to see in the new Central Hall?'

One person who definitely was interested in the exhibition was Dame Mary Archer, chair of the board of trustees at the Science Museum Group,who is to chair the jury which will evaluate the proposals and select a winner.

She said she was impressed by the standard of all shortlisted entries and she urged local residents and visitors to come along and give their views, saying the jury would take account of all comments.