[Gayle]

Good evening everyone, thank you for posting questions

But once again I start with an apology. I did not know protocol and posted my initial letter in the wrong place, thank you to Busman747 for putting it in a more accessible place.

For information, I was invited on a couple of weeks ago by a member and although it’s taken me a little while to pluck up the nerve to do it I had hoped that we could have a discussion without me getting even more flak for doing what I was asked to do.

Anyway, onto the subject in hand. I will answer every question in order that they were asked – I’ll sort of skip over the conversation bit in the middle of the thread. If I disappear for a few minutes it’s because I’m answering private messages individually, I did say that I would do that.

I will state FACTS if I know them but if I don’t I will be honest explaining why I don’t know them. I will once again stress that any OPINIONS expressed are mine and mine alone – they are not the opinions of any organisation that I am involved in (by that I mean Oswaldtwistle Players, Hyndburn Women’s Forum or Mid Pennine Arts).

So it would make sense, I think, for me to explain the origin of the project. Bear in mind I only joined it a year ago and the project has been running for almost three years already so can't give you specific dates of events but I can get things in the right order. This might be a bit longwinded but I’ll keep it as brief as possible because I do want to get on to answering your questions.

Around three years ago ELP (East Lancashire Partnership) and NWDA (Northwest Development Agency) developed the idea of a Regional Park as a marketing tool for the whole of East Lancashire. This encompassed the six boroughs of East Lancashire:- Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Ribble Valley and Rossendale. They sourced some money from Central Government for the regeneration of this area to make it appealing to businesses to set up camp here and to make it less appealing for residents to move elsewhere. They approached Mid Pennine Arts to create some artwork and thus the LAND project was born. The LAND project is involved in working with the public to create things like waymarkers in forests, teaching willow weaving as a skill, and other earthy related traditional arts events. This was not high enough profile for ELP and NWDA so they asked MPA to come up with the idea for a higher profile project. MPA came up with the idea for six landmark sculptures, the PANOPTICONS, on the hills of East Lancashire, one in every borough. At that point, from what I understand, the six Councils were approached and all of them agreed, steering groups were formed and internal officers (in most cases the Arts Development Officer) were appointed to progress the project.

An open competition was held by RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) to select the first three designs for Hyndburn, Blackburn with Darwen and Pendle. This was open to architects around the world, including local architects. They received 180 entries, Mid Pennine Arts narrowed it down to six designs for each borough and the winning designs were selected by the specific steering groups for each borough (by the way, Mid Pennine Arts has no vote in any of the steering groups and these groups are made up of Councillors, Officers and people who have specific involvement in the immediate vicinity of the proposed site, i.e. local community groups who are active around that area). At that point the Halo (the big UFO shaped design) was selected for Hyndburn. As you may know, it was later rejected after media scrutiny and a change of leadership from Labour to Conservative within the Council. What you may not know is that it is now being sited on Top O’Slate in Rossendale and has attracted £300,000 extra investment for that site. Anyway, we started stage 2 in January this year to get the remaining three designs for Burnley, Ribble Valley and Hyndburn.

This was done differently by appointing a Curator for the competition and by inviting specific up and coming architects to pitch for each site. Again this was done to the steering group (members now include Cllr Brian Walmsley and Cllr Tony Dobson, by the way). The steering group selected three architects to produce draft ideas. These three ideas were exhibited in January around Hyndburn and comments forms were completed by members of the public – designs were also shown in the local papers. Working from the comments forms and with their own instincts the steering group unanimously selected Peter Beard’s earth work ideas to go forward. Again, I’ll remind you that Mid Pennine Arts had no vote at these meetings. Although, I’ll agree that it was the one that we favoured at the office there was no influence involved.

Peter Beard was then allowed time to redevelop his design. He took on board all the comments from the steering group, he avidly read the local papers and letters that came to the office and he attended meetings with a local school and local community groups. He then produced the new design which is the point we’re at now.

So, a bit long winded but essential for the discussion I think. One of the things that I want to get out of this discussion is what your actual objections are – is it the site that’s causing a problem, is it the aesthetics of the design or is it the over all rationale behind the project that’s bothering you? After I’ve answered all the questions I’ll put a poll at the top of the thread for you to complete.

I’ll keep plugging away at the questions, feel free to add more at the end and I’ll get to them too.