‘TOWN MINING SCULPTURES HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO ROT’
Councillor: Loss of our industrial heritage tribute ‘would be a tragedy’
DILAPIDATED sculptures marking a town’s mining heritage are facing an uncertain future – and must be moved to find out if they can be repaired.
The condition of the giant miners’ lamps on the roundabout near Biddulph’s fire station, has sparked complaints about their shabby appearance.
Now Staffordshire Moorlands district councillors have been told they must be removed for repair because they are encased in concrete. But leaders could give ‘no assurances’ about the work and whether they will return ‘in a fit state’.
Councillor Jill Salt, above, who represents Biddulph East, raised the matter at a full meeting of the authority. “It’s embarrassing,” she said. “They’re just a heap of rotting mess.”
She added: “People feel the mining heritage in Biddulph is being eroded and ignored. People are frustrated that they’ve been allowed to rot and get into such a state.
“People feel that miners’ estates that they were left on don’t matter to the council.” Council leader Sybil Ralphs, right, said a crane will be required to remove the sculptures so they can be assessed at the authority’s Fowlchurch depot in
Leek.
A company has been found to carry out the removal, but she had no date for when the work would take place, and was unable to give reassurances the lamps will be restored and still have working lights when the work is complete.
“They are in a very, very precarious state,” she said. “I cannot assure you that they will be taken away in their whole, and I cannot assure you that they will be brought back in a fit state – none of that is possible until they’ve actually been removed from the roundabout.” Councillor Ralphs said the overall cost would be £2,500, although Councillor Salt said she’d been told by officers the eventual price tag could be as much as £20,000.
Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Salt said she felt there had been a ‘disappointing’ lack of communication about the sculptures’ future.
She said: “We’ve had no timeline, and no assurances they’ll be fully restored, other than to say they will be removed to the Fowlchurch depot and assessed there. “What is most disturbing is why have they been allowed to get to that state in the first place? Why wasn’t there a maintenance plan for them? Why haven’t they been tended to? Why have they just been ignored and allowed to rot?
“I hope that they are fully restored. If they’re lost, it’ll be a tragedy.”