Guru hits out at threat to The Public
Monday 26th January 2009, 11:30AM GMT.
The architect behind Black Country arts centre The Public today spoke of his sadness at the prospect of the Arts Council pulling the plug on its funding.
The future of the pink and black building in West Bromwich could be in jeopardy, it has been claimed, if the body abandons its £500,000 annual support for the interactive gallery, the main attraction in the building, which has never opened.
The fate of the gallery will be revealed in the next 24 hours as the Arts Council meets tomorrow.
Will Alsop, who designed the building, has said in the past it is one of his greatest achievements. Today he said he stood by that statement, adding: “I hope that the Arts Council can continue to fund it. It deserves it. The fact that it’s not open is due to computer issues.
“I’m very upset because I think the project was very well founded and certainly had its roots in a lot of the people who were engaged right from the beginning when it started in 1997.
“Some of those problems that it got into were the result of which contractors should be used for the building.
“I’m very sad because I think fundamentally the project is really good and fills a real need in West Bromwich and the region.
Asked if he worried that its difficulties were reflecting badly on him as his name is associated with the project he added: “I do worry about that and your names does get dragged into things.
“On the other hand we were the architects, we were there through the whole process.”
So far, £63 million has been spent on the centre, almost £30 million of which has been ploughed in by the Arts Council, which has committed £1.5 million to running costs of the gallery over a three year period.
The main centre remains closed to the public following a raft of technical and financial problems.
The Arts Council will now only examine a new business case for the gallery before it decides whether to invest any more cash.
Sandwell’s regeneration chief, Councillor Bob Badham, said: “We hope that they continue to fund it. There’s a meeting tomorrow and we’ve had meetings with them.”
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It’s ridiculous that this building could close down before it’s even opened to the public. Is the whole building closed to the public or just the main interactive gallery? Is there anything to see inside it if anyone did visit it?
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Knock it down and build houses instead.
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adam you can watch the staff knitting if you want
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Yes it fills a real need in the area NOT, if we want to see art then we catch the 404 bus or drive a few miles to walsall,we dont need a monstrous object dumped in the middle of bromwich when we are clearly lacking many other things that would not need to be funded by us taxpayers .
Mr allsop is not bothered as i too would not mind being paid massive amounts of money to create such a mockery of a building if i never saw it everyday.
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if the stevie wonder architect loves this tin shed with wonky windows so much then why won’t he put the extra money, the taxpayers of sandHELL have put up in the last two years for this total waste of money,the crimesquad should be looking into this corrupt project,stop thief someones running off with the good folk of sandHELL’s tax money again.
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Once upon a time there was an architect of some renown who believed that everyone should live in tall, concrete tower blocks constructed on bleak, windswept estates dotted on the edge of town. I’m told he himself never actually lived in one though.
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“The fact that it’s not open is due to computer issues.” – Of course, if it had real art in, rather than TV screens, it could have been open months ago.
seanalbion20 – you don’t need to go to Walsall to view art; there is a nice little gallery in Wednesbury.
There has been way too much money spent. We should cut our losses and turn the building into affordable housing.
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i wonder if the council tax payers are aware of how much they have contributed. they would be up in arms if they new the real cost. i see bob badham has raised is head above the parapet for the first time in ages perhaps he would like to enlighten us on how much we have contributed to this folly i dare him
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Ray exactly right!!!!!! The clown who thought it a good idea to pack families into soulless concrete boxes, is now watching them being torn down.
What a shame real people, with real experience of life, don’t take part in running our infrastructure and housing facilities.
Will Alsop, self praise is no recommendation, and I think you owe the people of Sandwell the details about how much you made out of us.
Rob H, no don’t knock it down, seal all the doors up, and knock a big hole in the top, then get all the asylum seekers who have nothing to do, to walk round the streets of Sandwell and collect up all the black bags of rubbish that the idle refuse department refuse to collect, because they suspect it has the wrong colour scrap of paper hidden in the middle, or there is a bit of cardboard in the bag.
Start with St Marys Road, then Wighorn Road, then Park Road and just keep walking.
Sandwell gets more like a 3rd world country every day.
Jim of Bearwood
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Jim,
Maybe the residents make the area they live in? If they took some pride in where they live, Sandwell wouldn’t be the dive it is!
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In the days when the bus station was there, did the buses run late, were people knocked over at all – I mean.. was the land there cursed in some respect.
Universally speaking, some things are never meant to happen.
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what a waste of money It should never have been built in west Bromwich .a creative mess is the word.
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Martin Woolley said: “Of course, if it had real art in, rather than TV screens, it could have been open months ago.”
The problem is, they can’t AFFORD any real art now, they spent all the money on a white elephant which you can’t see if you wanted to.
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Wotcha.
Are you familiar with the expression
“Good money after bad” ?
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nice looking building
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good in every way !
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Well here we are, the day after the meeting. What, I wonder, will the fate of the building be…?
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For those of you who keep slagging sandwell area off, go live somewhere else if you don’t like it. I am pretty well travelled and if you think sandwell is bad try living up north or even areas of London. They make Sandwell look like paradise. You lot ain’t seen nowt if you think it’s bad round here and you probably only see what you want to see any way!!!!!
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Not trying to slag sandwell off, I live here. But what makes the council idiots think that we need this sort of mostrosity in the middle of west brom? I bet half of them dont live local anyway, and that alsop guy wants shooting. The design of the building is an absolute joke, what designer in their right mind would incorporate having to remove pieces of the facia to replace broken windows?
If west bromwich deserved something like this why not ask locals to draw their ideas so at least it would have been a local design, or is it a case of secret handshakes and envelopes of cash ?????
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I see this building won the Worst Building of 2008 award and the same architect won the Worst Building of 2006 award for another project. Of the two awful buildings without any obvious business plan I think this is the one which could most easily be converted to a swimming pool which any third world town should have but West Bromwich hasn’t. I’d go and visit it, but I wouldn’t want to pay £7 to go in just for a swim.
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FFS your comment, Jim, Maybe the residents make the area they live in? If they took some pride in where they live, Sandwell wouldn’t be the dive it is!
FFS , Yes of course we wanted that abortion in West Bromwich, that’s why everyone is in uproar about it, well except for Sandwell’s Labour Councillors, who obviously made a lot of money out of the meetings and planning committees involved in its conception.
Its very hard to take pride in the place you live in when we are forced to walk along dirty filthy streets covered in rubbish, because the council refuse collectors wont take the rubbish away, or the council never send road sweepers to clean our roads.
We try to keep our roads clean, but we have to keep phoning the council to clean the rubbish away that the bin collectors have dropped in the middle of the road, or have picked up and tossed over into someone’s garden,
Brian, if Sandwell Labour Council refunds me the money that they owe me for not providing the services I have paid for, then I will happily move out of this dump.
That’s why the world is the way it is, because of people like you, instead of trying to improve life you just want people to ignore what’s happening and go somewhere else, NNNNOOOOOOOooooooooo.
If I am paying for a service, I want what I am paying for, and as yet there is very little evidence that is happening.
Jim of Bearwood.
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Dear Jim of Bearwood. The failings of Sandwell Council are very well known. The town is a laughing stock around the UK because of them. In fact the Council is even a laughing stock within Sandwell, but the the people of Sandwell don’t vote them out do they? Can you explain that?
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You get what you pay for jim of bearwood,but its never enough for people like you who are always moaning about their poor little lot. Look around you and open your eyes ,then you might see the bigger picture instead of being blind folded all the while.
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Officer Dibble exactly right, but I can honestly say, I am one of the 27% that does get off his backside to vote at election time.
brian “You get what you pay for jim of bearwood” NOOOOOOO and that’s the problem, you tell me where I signed an agreement saying I didn’t want my street kept clean and tidy, I didn’t want my storm drains cleaned out so the rainwater actually run away instead of flooding the roads and footpaths.
Tell me where I asked for shopping centres to be turned into ghost towns because Sandwell council like to punish motorist who use their cars for shopping?
Tell me where I instructed the council not to salt the roads when they were covered in ice?
Tell me where I said it was ok, for part time councillors to use my hard earned money to pay for their private pensions?????
Next????
And forget the bigger picture I don’t live in the bigger picture I live in the dump called Sandwell.
Jim of Bearwood
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Officer Dibble exactly right, but I can honestly say, I am one of the 27% that does get off his backside to vote at election time.
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brian “You get what you pay for jim of bearwood” NOOOOOOO and that’s the problem, you tell me where I signed an agreement saying I didn’t want my street kept clean and tidy, I didn’t want my storm drains cleaned out so the rainwater actually run away instead of flooding the roads and footpaths.
Tell me where I asked for shopping centres to be turned into ghost towns because Sandwell council like to punish motorist who use their cars for shopping?
Tell me where I instructed the council not to salt the roads when they were covered in ice?
Tell me where I said it was ok, for part time councillors to use my hard earned money to pay for their private pensions?????
Next????
And forget the bigger picture I don’t live in the bigger picture I live in the dump called Sandwell.
Jim of Bearwood
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The people of West Brom have been badly let down by the idiots responsible for the fiasco that is the Public.
It is a criminal waste of money. And in an area where there is no swimming pool, sports centre or cinema, an insult to ordinary people who would not want it even if it did open.
For God’s sake, turn it into something useful now. Sell the building to a buisness which will provide a service the people actually want
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Not the sandwell i live in Jim. Not the best place in the world but my streets clean,and the roads have been salted when snow or ice has been forcast. Can’t say anything about council pensions because i don’t know about that picture ,but rain water floods most areas because of the amount we seem to ge these days and thats all areas. Don’t suppose the floods a few years ago by the M50 were caused by not cleaning the drains. As for ghost towns i know of a few that have been hit badly-oldhill being one, but regeneration by large supermarkets like tescos seems to keep these towns alive and thats down to councils granting permision for these places to exist. So they are helping to regenerate the area. At the end of the day you should get what we all get, and the same service’s in your area. If you don’t then fair enough , but i can’t see it myself.
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Brian, I take my camera everywhere, and I have photographic evidence to back up my statement that storm drains are not cleaned out, and even when its not raining, they are full to the brim with dirty water and rubbish.
I live close to a main bus route, and in the recent black ice, water that had overflowed from a storm drain, near a traffic island, had frozen solid, and no salt had been put down, that is an undeniable fact.
I know Old Hill well, it’s a thriving little place, well except for the market being shut down, Bearwood High Street, used to be the same, you didn’t need to go anywhere else for whatever your needs were, all the shops you needed were in Bearwood.
Then Sandwell Council stepped in an did a Public on the high street, it was just like turning off a tap, parking spaces disappeared, roads were narrowed, parking wardens punished shoppers who wanted to spend their money in Bearwood, instantly quality shops that had been in the area for years, closed down, now its just a row of empty shops with “to let” signs outside, don’t take my word for it, go and look!!!
Regards free pensions for part time councillors, just write and ask them for the details, below is an article from the Express and Star, this article posted on August 7, 2008 at 11:39 am
Taxpayers top up councillors’ pensions
Taxpayers are paying into pensions for councillors across the region, the Express & Star can reveal.
Elected politicians at town halls are taking advantage of a special pension scheme to give them handouts after they retire.
The pensions, which were set up by the Government and started in 2003, are funded by taxpayers and are handed out on top of any pensions they might have for full-time jobs. There are 119 councillors across the region in the scheme, including Birmingham City Council which tops the league with 48.
Brian, I never make statements I cant back up with facts.
Jim of Bearwood
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