£75,000 of taxpayers’ cash wasted on unused art project

SCHEME ABANDONED BECAUSE IT WAS TOO EXPENSIVE AND THE RIGHT VENUE COULD NOT BE FOUND BY COUNCIL

COVENTRY City Council spent over £75,000 on an art project that never appeared, a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) has revealed. The payment has been criticised as ‘astonishing’ this week.

The FOI request, responded to in February this year, asked the authority to break down the cost of public artwork between 2019 and 2022.

As part of its response, the council said it had “spent £75,266 on the development of a public art proposal which is not being taken forward to production and installation”.

A statement from the authority revealed that five artists were hired in 2019 to develop an art proposal focused on climate change and the green agenda. But the work was later abandoned because it was too expensive and the right venue couldn’t be found.

“In the end, the challenge of delivering to the brief in a suitable location, alongside an anticipated required investment of £250,000 resulted in the decision it wasn’t feasible to go ahead beyond this stage,” a Coventry City Council spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“For many reasons not all exciting projects become reality. We spent some time and money, £75,000, investigating an art proposal focussed on climate change and the green agenda which was started in 2019.

“We did some development work with five artists and this was paid creative work.

“It’s important that artists are treated in the same way as other businesses and suppliers and are not expected to give their time for free.”

Responding to the news, Coventry Conservatives leader Councillor Gary Ridley said: “This raises a number of questions about value for money and accountability.

“It seems astonishing that five people could be paid around £15,000 each to come up with a proposal that went nowhere because of location and funding.

“Surely the right approach would be to commission someone to undertake work on a site you already have with money you’ve actually got.

“Why did they pay people to come up with something if they knew these two factors were an issue?”

In the last few years more than £370,000 has been invested in new art in the city, with “almost all of this funded through external sources” the spokesperson for the council said.

“Art has been woven into regeneration and used to help create a lasting legacy for local people which will go on long beyond our year as City of Culture,” they added.

Works include Morag Myerscough’s colourful ‘Endless Ribbon’ mural which covers the popular shopping area of Hertford Street.

Earlier this month, an application for a large street art of fox cubs and peregrines was submitted to the council as part of the City of Culture’s ‘green futures’ theme.

The new work by artist Curtis Hylton will cost an estimated £10,000 and go on a wall in Spon End, celebrating the city’s ‘hidden nature.’

This raises a number of questions about value for money and accountability

Cllr Gary Ridley