Wilmslow Town Council has approved two grant applications from Incredible Edible, the group of volunteers who tend community plots in the town centre and were the driving force behind Wilmslow's entry into the RHS Britain in Bloom competition.
The first grant for £500 is to go towards the restoration of The Pear sculpture to its original position on Alderley Road. The Pear, which was carved from red St Bees sandstone by Wilmslow sculptor Keith Carter Harris, was destroyed by vandals in July 2014 - just a month after being installed.
The damaged sculpture has already been repaired and a more solid construction has been designed in the form of a solid stone plinth with steel pins used to make the sculpture more robust.
Keith Carter-Harris explained "Lessons have been learned in how this happened in the first place and what we can do to make sure funding when it comes in is well spent and it is not going to happen again
"So for that reason what I have done is looked at the design of the original plinth, which was designed by a stone mason, the lessons we learned over that having not been quite as robust as we anticipated is the redesign of the actual plinth itself. So there is a slightly higher cost involved because we are talking about a single stone, taking up the same profile as the original plinth but not in blockwork but as one piece."
The requested funding will go towards the cost of the new plinth stone, the lifting and moving of the stone from the quarry in Kerridge to Wilmslow, the final fixing of the new plinth into the foundation and a new brass plaque. The total estimated costs are £1300 and Incredible Edible has already received donations from two individuals, two local nurseries and they will donate £100 themselves.
Cllr Ellie Brooks said "This has been a real journey from seeing it vandalised to seeing Keith do a marvellous repair job and everybody putting their heads together and coming up with this solid plinth which is more likely to break somebody's foot than fall over."
All councillors voted in favour of this grant application, with the exception of Cllr David Jefferay.
The second grant application was for £2036 to cover Incredible Edible's public liability insurance, costs for entering the Britain in Bloom competition and the purchasing of plants, compost, fertiliser etc for the plots in the town. It will also enable them to purchase hi vis waistcoats, gloves and materials for the workshops they provide.
Maurice Palin, Incredible Edible Wilmslow's treasurer, explained "Because we did well last year we need to maintain that and improve on it because our aspiration is to be the representative for the north west in the national competition which is going to take a lot of hard work, it's probably going to take us a year or two at least to get to that position, because Colne has been the representative for most of the time the competition has been running, so obviously we're determined to make Wilmslow the town that chosen to represent rather than Colne and that's going to need what we've been doing and only more so.
"So were looking to increase the planting, we need to plant a bit more than we did last year. We're going to continue to use local nurseries to provide the plants and hopefully we can show the RHS that we ought to be the north west representative."
The grant application was increased by £100 by Wilmslow Town Council to enable them to purchase a plaque for a new tree carving which will be carried out on Alderley Road next month by Ed Pilkington.
Wilmslow picked up an incredible three awards at the RHS North West in Bloom 2014 competition. In their third year of entry Wilmslow received the Biodiversity Award for Lindow Common, the Most Improved Entry in the North West In Bloom competition and a Gold Award for Best Large Town Entry.
Comments
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Mr Keith Carter-Harris [sculptor] explained, "Lessons have been learned in how this happened", referring to the unauthorized demolition of the original pear statue. The big question is, do you understand why?
I don't think Wilmslow people are impressed with a pear that looks like a domestic light bulb. It is too perfect, not set at an angle, has no leaves attached and has no blemishes. I'd say it is lacking artistic appeal.
If you are replacing the column with a stone plinth, then why not a more artistic representation of a pear in line with Wilmslow's standards?
Did you know that whoever demolished the first one, took two goes to complete it over a period of a couple of days (or nights)? Maybe you caught them?
Whilst Wilmslow residents clean our streets, our money continues to expense Cllr Jones self aggrandissement. What happened to democracy?
Looking forward to the tree sculpture, I wonder what the inspiration will be?
The reason I voted as I did was the location. I think it is a bad idea having it between Revolution and the kebab shop. I understand that the structure has been strengthened but that may even turn it into more of a challenge for some people and it will not stop it being vandalised in other ways.
It's a shame that I have to think like that but we've already seen it damaged once (and we've also recently seen the destruction of the trees in the Carrs) so I wasn't comfortable with spending more of (y)our money on it in that location.
I hope that the new installation will be fully risk-assessed, imagine if the new heavy plinth were to fall on a vandal and injure him.
If the same outcome happened again (i.e. demolition of the plinth and damage to the sculpture), then move it inside along with all the park benches, litter bins and other street furniture that get vandalised!!
Any person convicted of pear sculpture et al damage, should be ordered to pay full damage restitution as compensation.