Letters: Not good enough

Firstly, the "statues" will do no such thing.

Secondly, I want to comment on points in that article.

Mr Johnson, one of the sculptors, says "Communities are getting up to speed in art appreciation and starting to know what they want".

The implication that people, including any councillors, who consider Mr Johnson's efforts as a load of junk are simply not with it is condescending in the extreme.

The community expressed itself overwhelmingly opposed to the statues when asked for their comments in Saltburn Library.

Them Mr Johnson says that Saltburn should not be making much of its Victorian heritage. Yet, allegedly, both statues purport to be about the Victorian development of Saltburn.

Mr Johnson also says that some gates he made in 1991 were also branded as a pile of junk - it seems he has a history of creating piles of junk. Mr Johnson also says that when the ideas were outlined to Saltburn Improvement Company there was no dissent - he obviously does not realise that SIC conducted no public consultation before commissioning the statues, not even applying for planning permission until after the statues were constructed.

However, when the photographs appeared in Saltburn Library there was dissent a-plenty.

What is being said in the article is attempting to turn attention away from consideration of the statues themselves. I quote: "These statues can help it (Saltburn) to start moving forward" - an example of the fake significance being splashed around. I quote again: "A pick handle to represent his mining interests has been placed in the chest cavity" - how pretentious.

In truth, for all the emphasis on contemporary context and Saltburn people should look to the future, these statues are tired, dispirited and feeble attempts at novelty. Henry Pease is firmly in the best Blue Peter style - rather like constructing the Venus de Milo from egg boxes and drinking straws. The other is reminiscent of a rather large, dysfunctional, rotary clothes airer.

I hope the councillors stick to their guns, reject these planning applications and refuse to become party to imposing them on Saltburn; it is council land, after all.

These statues do not belong in Saltburn, not least because it is a conservation area.

BRIAN KENNEDY

7 Gill Street,

Saltburn by Sea.

TS12 1HP

Sir, - Your correspondent, Brian Kennedy, (D&S, Feb 15) is wrong on several points. Having seen the sculptures, I would be delighted to have them outside my own front door - if the minor detail of obstructing access for the fire engines could be overcome! They are modern but reflect the sculptors' well-researched history of our area. As a director and company secretary of Saltburn Improvement Company, I went to Doncaster last week, at my own expense, to be absolutely sure that I was recommending a project to which, as a long-term volunteer in Saltburn, I would give my whole-hearted support - and I do.

From a population of more than 6,000, very few people commented on the display in the library - hardly the "overwhelming public rejection" claimed by Mr Kennedy. Students from Huntcliff School really liked them and were upset by the comments of some of the adults. Any museum collection could be described as piles of junk if you are that way inclined. Carefully selected artefacts combined with the sculptures have a relevance which even Mr Kennedy should be able to understand.

In 1996, a group of Saltburn volunteers won Rural Challenge funding for the town with a detailed programme for economic regeneration, mainly through tourism. Part of the funding was for public art-work, an attraction for visitors. I believe that most Saltburn people do not wish to exist in a sort of time-warp. We can celebrate our past and our beautiful built and natural environment, but at the same time acknowledge the tastes of our younger residents and also enjoy the work of talented artists as part of a living, thriving town in 2002.

JOAN GUY

Leven Street

Saltburn-by-the-Sea.

Sir, - Dem statues, dem damn statues ... "If I could tell you I would nae o'needed to have painted it!" So replied a young pupil of a Glasgow school on being asked what her prize winning abstract painting meant. If only the ever-growing number of chattering artists would allow their work to speak for itself. Instead, like Mr Johnson, the joint creator of the statues bound for Saltburn, they are apparently driven to make public the most trivial revelations about their personal creative processes.

Despite his 22 years in the art business Mr Johnson has failed to grasp that we relate to his work on our terms, not his.

Saltburn Improvement Company is also continuously guilty in this respect and particularly with regard to its "success" in engaging the services of Johnson and Cartmel, however that may have come about.

Unfortunately, as with other astonishing planning decisions affecting Saltburn, these statues will probably be imposed upon the residents to the delight of Joan Guy, the self confessed "mother" of the project. However before Joan Guy and her fellow cohorts of the Saltburn Improvement Company begin to wet the baby's head, they would do well to heed the words of Erasmus.

"Those arts are most blessed which have the closest affinity with stupidity."

Perhaps Johnson and Cartmel should pay attention to them too.

ANDREW BARR

1 Avon Court,

Avon Street,

Saltburn