CULTURE CLASH
Crieff Monuments‘ neglected’in favour of Perth
Culture chiefs have been accused of letting key aspects of Crieff’s heritage “fester” while they pursue what has been labelled a “vanity project” in Perth.
Strath capital resident and history enthusiast Ian Hamilton believes locals and visitors are not getting a fair chance to see the three Crieff Monuments at their present home in the Old Town Hall.
Mr Hamilton checks the basement display area which houses the Mercat Cross, the town’s stocks and the Pictish Burgh Cross on a monthly basis and has regularly reported what he describes as “the continuing ingression of damp both in the display area and the stairs leading to it” to Culture Perth and Kinross ( Culture PK), the body which looks after the town’s treasured items on behalf of the community.
And he has now invited Culture PK chair Lord Kinnoull and Perth and Kinross Council officer Fiona Robertson to meet him to view the Monuments in their “uninviting” environment for themselves.
In a letter published in today’s Herald, Mr Hamilton states:
“Despite repeated requests ... the Crieff Monuments continue to fester in the basement of Crieff’s Old Town Hall.
“These people [Culture PK and Perth and Kinross Council] are so preoccupied with the re-development of Perth City Hall that they are neglecting the county’s other cultural assets and siphoning off‘care and maintenance’ funds to what is rapidly becoming a massive Perth-centric‘ vanity’ project, now estimated at £23 million.
“I check the display area on a monthly basis and have regularly reported the continuing ingression of damp both in the display area and the stairs leading to it, this despite £178,000 of remedial expenditure three years ago.
“I just receive patronising comment and hollow promises – nothing more.”
Mr Hamilton – a long-time advocate of the artefacts being moved to Strathearn Community Campus – goes on to state in his letter:“I invite Lord Kinnoull and/or Ms Robertson to meet me at this site, to witness the following – all three iPad displays are inoperative, plaster and paintwork is peeling off the walls and the stairway leading to the basement, the Michaelmas Tryst panel is peeling off its wall mount, and the cold and uninviting environment.”
After asking if annual monitoring arrangements are taking place, the document concludes:“In addition, they [Culture PK] need to be quite frank and honest about the failure of their visitor arrangements strategy. It is totally naïve.”
The Monuments were initially meant to be accessible to the public for 22 hours a week.
Perth and Kinross Council did not issue a response to Mr Hamilton’s letter prior to the Herald going to press on Wednesday this week.
• See page four of today’s Herald for Mr Hamilton’s full letter.
I just receive patronising comment and hollow promises Ian Hamilton