Dream can rival Angel of the North

8:52am Thursday 14th March 2013 in Letters By Reader letter

Dream can rival Angel of the North Dream can rival Angel of the North

HAVING read the letter in the St Helens Star by Mr Mckenny I find myself agreeing with many points that he makes.

However, the picnic tables and benches he speaks about, for me, are in place and I think are adequate. I agree that the signage could be bigger and better on the link road but I am biased where this is concerned.

Regarding the door to the rear of the sculpture, this had to be temporarily blocked off due to the constant mindless vandalism and theft of the cables that provided the light for the sculpture.

Consequently, the ‘rusting’ that Mr Mckenny saw on the joint is condensation caused through lack of ventilation that the original door provided. Rather like the mould that appears in your bathroom.

I believe that measures are in place to rectify this problem. Also the material used was a unique mix of Spanish dolomite marble and good old fashioned English concrete, not white render from France.

I totally agree with him that tourism brings in revenue. Remember Dream is the most visited, photographed and filmed landmark in St Helens.

It gives us a unique identity that visitors want to see, and from the people I’ve met on my many numerous visits to Dream, many are from out of the borough and Dream is their very first foray into St Helens, so having Dream looking its best at all times is crucial if first impressions are to be lasting ones.

It would be nice if we could spend more money on Dream but from the moment Dream was built the country has been in recession and I personally wouldn’t like to see money meant for care, schools and hospitals being lavished on Dream.

However, in the future when as before we become more affluent, I would like to have funding that will see Dream have better tree management and maintenance, a visitor centre, transport to the summit for the disabled and certainly a clear view from the M62 of the sculpture.

Then in my opinion Dream will rival the Angel of the North.

Remember governments come and go, recessions come and go, but great art is forever.

Gary Conley, former miner

Comments(9)

keepitreel says...
9:48am Thu 14 Mar 13

could MR CONLEY tell us why in the public meetings the lamp idea was thrown out THEN in a flash the head idea complete with video and a scale model was produced in the same meeting? you knew or better still were told by Chanel 4 what we had to have yes or no ? we were told a competition to find a young person from the town to model the head on would take place did it ? are you still on full time employment to promote the dream,and what is your role? as for being the top tourist feature in the town,were are the official figures complete with proof over say the GLASS MUSEUM or LANGTREE PARK or HAYDOCK PARK look forward to reading your replies.

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moonman77 says...
5:36pm Thu 14 Mar 13

keepitreel wrote:
could MR CONLEY tell us why in the public meetings the lamp idea was thrown out THEN in a flash the head idea complete with video and a scale model was produced in the same meeting? you knew or better still were told by Chanel 4 what we had to have yes or no ? we were told a competition to find a young person from the town to model the head on would take place did it ? are you still on full time employment to promote the dream,and what is your role? as for being the top tourist feature in the town,were are the official figures complete with proof over say the GLASS MUSEUM or LANGTREE PARK or HAYDOCK PARK look forward to reading your replies.
As I've said before on this subject I've yet to actually go and see the head close up but if your saying keep it real that your idea for your site was thrown out with your views not taken into consideration then that's out of order. Did the council just jump on the back of your idea and then take over ? If so, I'm sorry but that's just wrong.

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smith&weston says...
5:51pm Thu 14 Mar 13

Where are the figures to support the ' tourist dollar " suggestion ? Do visitors go to the Dream then trot off in to St Helens town centre to spend, spend , spend ? I think not seeing as how the town centre shops are closing down at the rate of a couple a month. Perhaps the local hotels could gather figures on how many visitors check in having travelled from far a field with the intention of visiting the Dream ?

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smith&weston says...
5:51pm Thu 14 Mar 13

Where are the figures to support the ' tourist dollar " suggestion ? Do visitors go to the Dream then trot off in to St Helens town centre to spend, spend , spend ? I think not seeing as how the town centre shops are closing down at the rate of a couple a month. Perhaps the local hotels could gather figures on how many visitors check in having travelled from far a field with the intention of visiting the Dream ?

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keepitreel says...
7:03pm Thu 14 Mar 13

moonman 77,at the public meeting that were very well attended by the locals and chaired by Chanel 4 people some people from LIVERPOOL who ran the whole thing and MR G.CONLEY,we had a rather childish presentation on having a replica of a miners lamp on the slag heap complete with a beacon on top,this was unanimously voted for by the public as a tribute to the miners,MR CONLEY stood up and said "we don't care what you want we are having this" and then produced the video,full colour impressions of the head a run down of all the other heads the artist had done and a scale model of the head,complete with a story of the dream!!!,Chanel 4 new well in advance what they wanted on the slag heap and every one involved new including MR CONLEY,the whole saga felt like paying lip service to the community,we were told a local competition would be held to find a face for the head,don't think this happened because the one we were told we were having looks exactly like the one now,this whole affair was if you don't want it we will put it somewhere else,we were also told not one penny of our tax money would be spent on the dream,i would like a breakdown of ALL the cost we the tax payers have spent on this folly.

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moonman77 says...
8:51pm Thu 14 Mar 13

keepitreel wrote:
moonman 77,at the public meeting that were very well attended by the locals and chaired by Chanel 4 people some people from LIVERPOOL who ran the whole thing and MR G.CONLEY,we had a rather childish presentation on having a replica of a miners lamp on the slag heap complete with a beacon on top,this was unanimously voted for by the public as a tribute to the miners,MR CONLEY stood up and said "we don't care what you want we are having this" and then produced the video,full colour impressions of the head a run down of all the other heads the artist had done and a scale model of the head,complete with a story of the dream!!!,Chanel 4 new well in advance what they wanted on the slag heap and every one involved new including MR CONLEY,the whole saga felt like paying lip service to the community,we were told a local competition would be held to find a face for the head,don't think this happened because the one we were told we were having looks exactly like the one now,this whole affair was if you don't want it we will put it somewhere else,we were also told not one penny of our tax money would be spent on the dream,i would like a breakdown of ALL the cost we the tax payers have spent on this folly.
Keepitreal my uncle Harry who worked at the mine ( he said he was an on setter whatever that is) said the community was represented by a group called 'shining light'? Led by his friend Marion who lives on the estate by the mine. He told me she helped choose the concrete head. He said they linked in with a local school and did a huge community excersise called mottos or something. Harry said he ll get Marion to ring tomorrow to tell me all about it. I'm fascinated now cause I thought the council had just paid and erected this head.

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rosered1 says...
3:55pm Sat 16 Mar 13

Here we go again. We wanted something to represent a mining community and were fobbed off with a giant white head with a mangled type of "from the ground comes light". Well, sorry but a large white head dumped on a hill does not represent that at all. We were unfortunate enough to be the "chosen" ones for this monstrosity to be placed here. A miners lamp would have been the obvious and far more fitting tribute to the history of the town but instead we got this so called "great art". It was a done deal before the very first meeting took place and all I can say is that once again the St Helens public have been taken for mugs and Mr Conley has been part of the whole charade. Great art ~ what a joke.

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keepitreel says...
6:24pm Sat 16 Mar 13

moonman did you speak to your aunt,i would like to know her feelings.

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moonman77 says...
9:26pm Sun 17 Mar 13

Hi keepitreall. It's my uncle H actually not my aunt. We've spoke a lot over the weekend. He suggested I check out a independent no council interference/flannel website called Sutton beauty which tells the story of the site and has some great pictures of the pits in the area. ( the ones of Bold remind me of growing up in Parr ) I suggest perhaps you and readers do cause someone somewhere is getting their wires crossed saying the community were not consulted ! I've took this from the site :

'In the meantime the community engagement programme - of which one strand was called 'Big Art's Little Art' (after C4's 'Big Brother's Little Brother' show) - continued with more than 3,000 local people attending 24 public exhibitions and 60 ambassadors signed up to help promote the Big Art Project in St.Helens. Also schoolchildren from Sutton Manor Primary School visited Crosby beach to study public art in the form of Gormley's Another Place exhibit and the residents of St.Helens were invited to rearrange the letters 'National Coal Board Sutton Manor Colliery’ into a motto to herald the future of the town.'

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