I CANNOT let an inaccurate comment by a Labour councillor, which was reported in last week's Guardian, go uncorrected.
It simply is not true that I originally agreed to the plans for the town centre artwork. I have always considered the artwork to be pretentious, inappropriate and a waste of public money, even at the original price.
And the Liberal Democrats warned the ruling Labour group more than two years ago that it was a mistake to set aside the council's financial regulations and pay the American artist 'up front'. This was reported at the time on the front page of the Guardian (the edition of Friday, April 2, 1999).
We were right too! The artist has now been paid more than 90 per cent of his fees, the artwork is still in the States months after it should have been delivered, and so far no-one from Warrington Borough Council has seen it.
Perhaps in the end Warrington residents will think that the artwork was a good use of a million pounds of their money, but I doubt it.
In my opinion they are more likely to think that the cash should have been used for resurfacing roads in Warrington, improving public transport, and so on in other words, on hard-pressed front line services.
CLR BRIAN AXCELL
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