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Media Release 3 July 2008 Ongoing work to improve Heavitree will bring a whole raft of benefits for the community, not just public art, Exeter City Council has stressed.
Responding to criticism of the City Council's plans for Fore Street, Heavitree, Cllr Wadham, Lead Councillor for Sustainable Development and Transportation said: "We have prepared a comprehensive scheme for Fore Street after a significant amount of public consultation. The scheme is not simply about providing one sculpture as some objectors are suggesting, it will deliver a number of benefits to the community."
The scheme will provide:
* Seven new trees
* A newly paved area by the public toilets with seating at the centre of which is a mature oak tree
* A re-designed junction at North Street/Church Street with one way traffic on Church Street and wider
pavements in high quality sandstone.
* The existing pedestrian crossing at the Church Street junction will be moved, as a result of our consultation.
* High Quality sandstone paving, public art feature and a new oak tree at the key entrance to Heavitree at
Gordon's Place.
* The continuation of the Facelift Scheme to improve shopfronts in Heavitree.
Cllr Wadham added: "With the constant involvement of Ward Councillors, we prepared proposals in April 2007 and presented them at a public meeting at St Michael's Church in the same month. The proposals were also featured in the Heavitree News. After this, we amended the proposals and then met with the Heavitree History Society in the Autumn and the Heavitree Community Association in December 2007 - to which the Heavitree traders were invited. Further amendments were made following feedback and we then displayed the final plans in Heavitree and at the Civic Centre during the last month.
"The concept for the public art with inscriptions was presented at the December meeting. What has changed is that we believed delivering this artwork in a mural on the flank wall of the Gun Shop was more difficult than providing a free standing structure, which is now what we plan to provide.
"As Rachel Sutton said in Wednesday's Echo, you can't design a piece of public art by Committee. We have got an imaginative, high quality design from an artist who has already provided us with the excellent obelisk in High Street. We're kidding ourselves if we think that art is going to be universally acclaimed - it never is. What the artwork will celebrate is special and local by references to Richard Hooker, Cliff Bastin, the Yew Tree in the Church Yard and the old Heavitree Brewery. We have enough murals already in Exeter. Let's be just a little bit more adventurous." |
