Future of monuments backinthespotlight
What next for the Crieff Monuments? Proud display or permanent storage?
In late 2008/09 a Perth and Kinross Council working party reviewed the future of the Monuments, located in the basement area of the Old Town Hall.
The party comprised senior, experienced officials from the then museums’ service, the legal and finance office, the building and estates office and the education department; together with Scotland’s leading expert on the conservation of ancient stone monuments retained as a consultant/ expert witness.
The working party addressed three major challenges:
• The unsuitability of the Town Hall for those conducting council-related business or visiting the Monuments. By this time it had been agreed to move Crieff Community Council meetings to the enlarged campus facility to provide safe public access, especially for those with mobility issues.
• The deteriorating condition of the Town Hall, which subsequently required £180,000 of remedial work (and still requires further attention).
• The anticipated withdrawal of the VisitScotland information bureau – which happened in March 2017.
The party concluded that the optimum solution would be to move the Monuments to a specially-designed dais within the soon-to-be-completed community library within the new campus building.
This would offer the lowest long-term financial outlay as all overheads were already covered within the running costs of the campus and library.
More importantly, the Monuments’ display would be a proud and unique reminder to successive generations of pupils of their significant archaeological heritage.
Unfortunately, a small politicallymotivated cabal challenged the council and the project was abandoned at the last minute.
A small number of this group has persisted to this day in trying to find ways of retaining the monuments in the Town Hall.
Their defence, and that of Culture Perth and Kinross, is that a public ballot went in favour of the Town Hall – with 130 votes for the Town Hall and 53 for the campus.
The ballot was supposed to compare the two sites against a menu of criteria, such as assured tenancy and easy access both in terms of public safety and ‘opening’ hours.
The latter has turned out to be an utter farce with only six hours a week on Thursdays at the Town Hall, against 37 hours, five days a week, at the campus library.
Culture Perth and Kinross refuses to discuss the future of the Monuments, saying it is a matter for PKC, so I appeal to the council, all local politicians, and folk to review the future of our wonderful Monuments – which are irreplaceable.
I would be happy to discuss this matter with any party prepared to listen to the facts.
A visit to the Strathearn Community Campus Archaeology Trail will surely show that, with the Monuments within the campus, the town would have a totally unique heritage attraction, both indoors and outdoors.
Ian Hamilton, by email