A LEGAL advisor to a pioneering steam locomotive project quit over what he says is a lack of information of engineering problems.

The revelation comes after the trust overseeing the £1.7m scheme to build Britain's first mainline steam locomotive in 40 years agreed to call in independent inspectors to assess work carried out so far.

Stuart Palmer resigned from the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust board earlier this year but had declined to reveal the reasons for his departure.

However, in a letter to the board, he said he had been concerned that covenantors - who make regular contributions to fund the project - were not being told of construction faults on the A1 Pacific Tornado, being built at Darlington's Hopetown works.

He said: "I consider it imperative that the board discloses to covenantors as quickly as possible the problems surrounding construction of the locomotive.

"I had only discovered the extent of the construction problems earlier in the year, although they had been known about in some quarters earlier than that.

"This failure to disclose was, in my view, unacceptable."

Mr Palmer said that he was also concerned that board meetings had become increasingly acrimonious, and said growing professional commitments was another factor in his decision to quit.

Anxiety over the quality of work undertaken so far - with the locomotive said to be 55 per cent complete - was also raised at an emergency meeting of covenantors in Darlington on Saturday.

The board agreed to commission an independent inspection of the progress in an attempt to allay the fears.

However, trust financial director Barry Wilson said many of the faults were minor and any significant ones were already being tackled.

He said: "We are aware of these problems and things have been done about them, but it was not as serious as Stuart was inferring."

He said the board had decided to keep some of the difficulties under wraps so as not to prejudice negotiations with contractors over putting them right.

Mr Wilson acknowledged there had been disagreements at board meetings, but said this was a sign of healthy debate.