[Gayle]

Tealeaf, I think you're being a bit pedantic (no change there then). Ok I stood for council but I wasn't a politician and am still not. I take part in the discussions but I can have no influence over any policies or judgements that are made - I am not in that position of authority/power/whatever you want to call it. My views are valid, as are everyone else's on here.

I am not standing for council again (certainly not in May next year) so I am not even remotely a politician now, even if you want to argue the point that temporarily I was politically inclined.

I should say though, that I am aware of the Sheffield student's work - only vaguely mind! My colleague at MPA is supporting them. This involvement with Accrington has come about directly because of the Panopticon project. When all the bruhaha was going on this time 18 months ago, my colleague visited the university to give a talk about the project. They became interested in Accrington and wanted to use it as a case study, especially as there was resistence to the sculpture and to regeneration in other areas (Project Phoenix, Broadway, the Health Centre, etc). Before you all jump down my throat on this one, take a step outside and look at the way things are portrayed from an outsiders angle and we do appear to reject regeneration. Yes, we say we want improvements but you only have to look at the amount of negativity on this site (mostly justified, I won't argue with you on that) to see what sort of impression it creates.

I didn't come right out and say that I was aware of the project at first because I wasn't 100% sure it was the same thing and I had to check in at the office first. Also, I know very little about it as it's not something that I'm directly related to so please don't ask me any questions about it.

Oh, and finally, I didn't know that I was going to be dragged into this debate and I don't think that the student in question is aware of who I am in relation to the project. In fact, I only answered because I was quoted. I think the quote is in the big Panopticon debate thread that we had or possibly my initial introduction thread. It's certainly early on.