[Gayle]

We did make it public - there was no 'done deal' about it at all as has been proven.

The process was really simple and we tried to reach as many people as possible. We invited three artists to put forward ideas - those ideas were displayed at seven places around Accrington and Huncoat, it was advertised in the Acc Obs and LET both in editorials and in placed advertisements. We put posters up all around the borough, not just in Accrington. We then announced which one had come out most favourably and asked the designer to go away and develop the design - then we went through the whole process of displaying it and advertising it again. I'm not really sure we could have done a lot more. You found out about it so it must have worked.

It was in the local papers practically every week from January through to April. The debate raged on here and I came on this site to talk about it.

I'm a bit cross that we were accused of it being a done deal for a few reasons
- because it wasn't - we felt we'd worked really hard to consult with people and short of going and knocking on every door in the borough I'm not sure what else we could have done.
- because people get cross because they have found out by word of mouth instead of being personally told by the organisers of an event or activity, yet people choose not to read or listen to information that is presented to them
- because as we've proven by going away and looking for other options we have listened to people and we haven't foisted something on the town that not everybody is happy with.