Mixed reaction to face of North

2:03am Monday 12th May 2008

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THE new face for the North-East has met the neighbours, but not all of them are friendly.

A 16 metre sculpture of a head and shoulders is to become a gateway for Aycliffe Business Park, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

Like most pieces of public art, many concerns are over cost, a concern which Billy Blenkinsopp, 59, a borough councillor, from Aycliffe Village, has.

He said: "I think it's a complete and utter waste of money and a lot of the people in the village won't like it. You have to remember it's as much at the entrance to the village as it is the business park."

Artist Joseph Hillier designed the steel sculpture to look unfinished, but some people think it looks unattractive.

Hazel Corner, 67, a retired farmer from Preston-le-Skerne, near Newton Aycliffe, said: "You have to wonder whether the money could have been spent better."

Donald Morgan, 64, a retired businessman from Newton Aycliffe, said the town was missing a suitable war memorial.

"I don't like it. It's horrendous," he said. "If I was a veteran I'd be spitting blood, driving past that thing to pay my respects standing round a flagpole."

The sculpture is only four metres shorter than the Angel of the North and is already drawing comparisons.

But Gillian Hill, 43, a housewife from Aycliffe Village, said people criticised the Angel of the North when it was first erected.

"There was a lot of reaction about the Angel of the North and that turned out to be a very popular landmark. We wouldn't be without it now," she said.

Paul Davies, 20, a student, from Newton Aycliffe, said the artwork helped promote the whole region as being more cultured.

"They have done things like this over in Middlesbrough with the bottle of notes and the Middlesbrough institute of modern art and I think it has helped raise the profile over there."

The project has been devised by Sedgefield Borough Council, Durham County Council and Sedgefield Engineering Forum, to promote Aycliffe Business Park.

John Evans, 50, a managing director from Aycliffe Village, said anything that helped to promote the area was welcome.

"Anything like that is going to be distinctive. It is going to be something that you remember, which is a good thing.

"I know the populous view is going to be that the money could have been better spent, but I think it will give the estate some distinction."

David Newell, 41, a community arts co-ordinator and borough councillor, from Ferryhill, said more public art was needed.

He said: "When you see places like Barcelona and other Europe cities you see we are lagging behind when it comes to public art.