Urban Art Association

It’s great no ? Or not ?

Does anyone actually care?
Councils up and down this once great land have been spunking money on shite that doesn’t benefit the tax payer for years, whether it be art or pothole machines that don’t work, all they care about is lining their own pockets, backhanders and gorging at the tax payers expense.
Theres nothing shocking here, its unfortunately expected from local authorities, its a shame its fits your anti Banksy rhetoric.

It’s interesting how you are now aiming your arrows at the council. Do you pull your own cart, or someone elses?

It's always shocking how much everything costs when a local Council is involved. If my Council has so much as a thought, it costs about 10k.

Every time a survey is done, an expert opinion is sought, it costs money and someone is being paid.

Costs for things like storage are also insane. My town's Christmas lights are housed for the majority of the year in what we, the local taxpayers, can only assume is a 4-star hotel.

We found out a few years ago that a local architect was jizzed 28k to come up with bridge designs for a bridge we didn't need, and that the Council couldn't afford to build anyway. And these weren't even technical drawings, they were just photoshopped images of some possible bridges over a river. Nearly 30 grand for some pretty pictures of bridges that weren't real. Good times. We're still laughing down at the Food Bank about that one.

The real winner with the pinwheel appears to have been the fabricators, but hey, a job's a job.

I kinda think it looks better all corroded and knackered now. A bit like English coastal towns.

This situation is currently unresolved , we are still waiting for further answers through our freedom of information request.
The locals in Weston are really behind us on this one. It's a scandal that the council wrote off money on a renovation of something that clearly hasn't been touched. The council didn't even have the item as Banksy took it back early 2019 . And it was with them until it was lent to the museum (even though it was a gift originally).

You're not exactly up to date with it, it's been in the museum since October 2022. Our questions regarding where the money went back then were drowned out by the apparent fact jps was wrong about it being missing. 

Yeah, the middle bit is now definitely unpainted, so that's either been stripped or replaced. Work has been done, which will have required a professional. Amateurs don't just rock up and start metalworking.

I have no idea what's been agreed regarding the artwork (chuckle), but I could imagine a scenario where Banksy decides to loan it, permanently, instead of gifting it to the Council. That way he doesn't have to worry about it being sold at some point, nor does he have to draw a massive gift symbol on the back of it.

Imagine being the fabricator that made this giant pinwheel. How many of those do you think they sell in a year? If I'd made one, then several years later a town Council contacted me and said they needed it restored, I'd be like, "And now...you come...to me."

I'd charge them whatever I thought I could get away with. I don't know when I'll ever sell a giant metal seaside pinwheel ever again. Or when my kids will eat, wherever they are.

What happened to the big sandcastle bit? Did they burn it when they burned and bulldozed the rest of the park? Or is it sitting in Elton's back garden or summin?

What you are actually seem to be saying here, is that it’s OK when someone holds his local council to account, although if you ask that council “for clarity and accountability of how they are  spending taxpayer's money, it inevitably costs taxpayer's money for the Council to come up with the answer”,

yet when that same person holds a (former local) artist who’s living rather well off it to account for fraud and other nasty things you’re not so much into it. Is that what you are trying to say? I mean, don’t you think this is all getting a bit pathetic Irl?

Yes, seems like I am behind the times with this one if it's been there since 2022. Thank you for highlighting it

We forgot to put these up with the original post. These are the figures we obtained in 2022.
This independent composites is an interesting company.
Notice how these figures don't match the recent figures of the freedom of information.