Trust Life #135
Controversy continues! It seems the Development Trust has caused a stir – not with housing but the fact that we have secured money for a sculpture trail. Now this has been well documented in The Ambler for over two years, but as some enterprising person has posted (relatively) negative comments on social media, one or two (yes as many as that) are saying the money could have been better spent on housing, the food bank and the town clock.
So let me put the record straight – firstly, the amount stated in those comments is incorrect. As I wrote when the money was granted, the full amount was £396k not half a million. Yes, it’s a lot of money, but not the spurious figure mentioned.
Related articles:
Waalk this way: Amble’s new sculpture trail is poised for lift-off
Next, the funding was not for housing or any of the other worthy projects mentioned, it was to meet a specific criteria through the Coastal Communities Fund. We met the criteria and were successful.
Now art will always be divisive and subjective; what one person likes another may not. It does not mean either is wrong, it just comes down to individual taste. We had a steering group made up of community representatives who chose the final designs, so there is a mix of tastes included, and hopefully everyone will find pieces that they like. I would add that there is more involved than physical sculptures; there are commissioned poems, music and a mobile phone app as well.
Finally, the Development Trust is here to ‘add benefit’ to the town, and is not responsible for statutory elements such as finding funding for more doctors and dentists, extending the Health Centre or even repairing the town clock. We have a very able council to carry out that work. We enhance the town for the benefit of the whole community by securing funding for projects, not the provision of statutory services.
Although progress of the sculpture trail was halted by Covid, all of this information has been included in previous issues of The Ambler. You can read back copies on the Ambler’s website: or search for ‘bird sculpture’
Other information on the community engagement work was available during the Puffin Festival. If you did not see it, I doubt you will be reading this now, but the information was there and shouldn’t come as a surprise just because it is on social media.
If anyone would like to become a Trust member, it is free, and you only need to fill in a form. Call in to the office: Fourways2, Dilston Terrace for details. You do need to be over 18, resident or work in Amble.
Julia, all Trust staff and Trustees
julia@ambledevelopmenttrust.org.uk
DEVELOPMENT TRUST MEMBERS:
The rescheduled AGM will be held on 14 September at 5pm
More bird sculpture articles:
I was not selected in the women’s five a side team, I had nee coin, no friends. The partner had left me.Got fired from my job. Everything was falling apart until I saw the Birdie song sculpture. Carrying coal to Newcastle like.