Taxpayers' £120,000 bill for 'B of the Bang'

David Ottewell

November 27, 2003

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COSTLY: Artist's impression of the B of the Bang project

PLANS for a massive public sculpture have been delayed again as it emerged £120,000 of taxpayers' cash is being used to prop up the project.

The 184ft-tall metal artwork - called B of the Bang and designed to mark the 2002 Commonwealth Games - was due to go up at the Sportcity site in east Manchester earlier this year.

The project was held up and the Manchester Evening News revealed the cost had doubled to £1.42m.

Now it has been hit by further delays and will not be erected until April or May next year.

The M.E.N. can also reveal that Manchester city council is diverting £120,000 to the project from a council fund for improving services, creating jobs, attracting visitors and improving Manchester's profile.

Council leader Richard Leese previously pledged the town hall would only contribute "a few thousand pounds" - and then only if other sources failed to pay. Most of the £1.42m is coming from European funds for underprivileged areas.

The council's decision to contribute was not made in public and only came to light through close scrutiny of town hall accounts.

Worthwhile

The town hall fund being used is personally administered by chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein in consultation with Coun Leese.

The minutes of the council's ruling executive, which discussed the issue, do not note a specific sum being agreed. Coun Leese said today that finding the money to ensure overall investment of £1.42m was worthwhile.

He said: "We said we would fill the funding gap but we were always looking to minimise that gap."

Simon Ashley, leader of the council's opposition Lib Dem group, said: "With the £120,000, the delay and the overspend we don't think this is the kind of thing we should be wasting our money on."

B of the Bang, which will be nearly three times as tall as Gateshead's Angel of the North, will stand next to the junction of Alan Turing Way and Ashton New Road.

A spokeswoman for New East Manchester, the regeneration company that commissioned B of the Bang, said: "I can confirm that the completion date is around May of next year."

Do you think the council is right to spend £120,000 on the sculpture?

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John, Chorlton (27/11/2003 at 12:04)

Simon Ashley from the Liberal Democrats once again proves that they do not understand what it takes to regenerate an area. The B in Bang will be ditinctive and will contribute to the profile of East Manchester which in turn will contribute to higher investment and more jobs for local people. Lets not forget the Lib Dems record, they after all opposed the Comonwealth Games saying that was a waste of money. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

Pete, Macclesfield (27/11/2003 at 13:41)

Jesus, how much are the other letters going to cost?

Richard Handscombe, Central Manchester (27/11/2003 at 15:04)

They should just go ahead and do it. Manchester needs an in-your-face sort of signiature icon like this, that could be used in many ways on brochures, letterheads and so on, in order to promote the city. Just do it!

Ace, east manchester (27/11/2003 at 16:53)

I have been against this work of art from the beginning because the work should reflect the history of the area and the local tennants should be consulted,The council has said it consulted with the local tennants but i have heard that just a few had been asked what they think of the sculpture ?.
I think if manchester council is wasting ratepayers money then the leaders should be held to account to the ratepayers of manchester .

Jon Pickstone, London (27/11/2003 at 17:33)

I think a prestigious art project of this nature could get Manchester a lot of highly beneficial positive attention. It's vital that Manchester continues to shrug off its image of the 'dirty old town'. The money spent seems like a good investment for the future.

I would however question the location of the sculpture. Wouldn't Piccadilly Gardens be more suitable, given that it has a much higher pedestrian throughflow than Eastlands, and it badly needs a focal point. Piccadilly could benefit in the same way that Trafalgar Square does from Nelson's Column. Alternatively, what about cladding the Piccadilly Plaza development with some neon advertising, which might give the Gardens a Piccadilly Circus/Times Square feel?

Ray, Stockport (29/11/2003 at 18:27)

Manchester doesn't need tarting up with expensive and meretricious 'points of focus' to attract visitors or trade. On the subject of dirty old towns, the Smoke must be top of the heap in this respect as anyone who has walked off a train at around four or five in the morning into the concourse of Euston station will confirm. Homeless lying about using walls as pillows and in adjacent office doorways with their possessions around them, and the surrounding area being cleared of tons of rubbish and litter is a sobering sight, never forgotten. But maybe it is a scene unfamiliar to those who emerge only after the streets have been aired. Nelson's Column is hardly to be compared with B of the Bang as it was willingly paid for by public subscription, not the largess of here-today, gone-tomorrow politicians splurging other people's money. And Manchester needs in-your-face icons like it needs a civic hole in the head. There is already Urbis on hand to act as a backdrop for corporate brochures, ads, letterheads and so on - a backdrop that costs the Manchester taxpayer a cool million a year. Yes, the Commonwealth Games was a triumph for all concerned - including the council. But what a pity that all who played their part in its success were not rewarded with a handsome bonus, rather than just the chief executive. The council also confidently forecast that the Games would generate thousands more jobs for local people. Wrong again.

Nick Skeens, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex (25/08/2005 at 23:11)

I think it's a great piece of work; judging by the pictures. I intend to visit Manchester just to see it. The largest sculture in Britain and brilliantly creative, energetic design and engineering. I imagine it will become more and more popular, and will, like the Angel of the North (which I'm not so keen on) become an icon.

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