PUBLIC MONEY. POOR JUDGEMENT.
BCP spends £54,000 on a West Cliff sculpture and then tells residents it cost them nothing.
Apparently, BCP Council’s new sculpture on West Cliff came at “no cost to local taxpayers”. That is the defence offered by cabinet member Councillor Andy Martin after confirming that Lean Into the Wind cost £54,000. It is also nonsense. The sculpture may have been paid for through a UK Government grant rather than BCP’s council tax account but government money does not materialise from thin air. It comes from taxpayers, including those living here in Bournemouth. It was public money before it reached BCP Council, it remained public money while BCP spent it and residents have every right to question the result.
Ring fenced does not mean responsibility free
The funding formed part of the Coastal Public Art and Heritage Trail and therefore could not simply be redirected into adult social care or the council’s day to day budget. However nobody is suggesting that BCP should have broken the grant conditions. The point is that ring fencing did not dictate this design. It did not order the council to commission an enormous rust coloured structure for West Cliff. It did not determine that £54,000 should be spent on it and it certainly does not excuse poor judgement. A restricted pot of money is still a pot of money that must be spent wisely.
The original bid did not prescribe this sculpture
The £19.9 million Coastal Communities Seafront Infrastructure bid was developed under the previous Conservative led council and secured funding for substantial improvements across the seafront. Those plans included repairs to Bournemouth Pier, better public toilets, renewed beach huts, promenade infrastructure, coastal protection and improved lifeguard facilities. They also included an allocation of £569,833 for a Coastal Heritage Trail involving public art. That should be acknowledged openly.
But the original bid did not contain Lean Into the Wind. It did not approve this design, select its creator or attach a £54,000 price tag to it. A general commitment to public art is not an endorsement of every object subsequently commissioned in its name.
This happened on the current administration’s watch
By July 2024, with BCP under its Lib Dem led administration, the council was advertising for two particular sculptures, a Jekyll and Hyde themed work at Alum Chine and a “large illusion style sculpture” for West Cliff. A £74,000 joint contract was subsequently awarded to Circling the Square Ltd. We now know that £54,000 of that total was spent on the West Cliff project alone.
The council has promoted the finished work enthusiastically, describing it as “striking” and celebrating its arrival with a social media teaser. Residents have been rather less enthusiastic. Art is subjective, but judgement in public office is not exempt from scrutiny simply because the purchase happens to be art.
This is about priorities not hostility to culture
Public art can add meaning, beauty and identity to a place. Bournemouth already has examples of artwork and memorials that are widely valued. With Arts University Bournemouth nearby and talented artists living across the conurbation, there were countless possibilities for celebrating our coastline and heritage: work by local creatives, changing installations, murals, historical interpretation or projects allowing residents to help select what would occupy such a prominent public space. Instead, BCP spent £54,000 on a permanent structure that has left many residents asking the same blunt question: why this?
At the same time, people see worn paths, tired public spaces, neglected seating, poor lighting and accessibility problems along our coastline. They repeatedly hear that the council faces difficult choices and severe financial pressure. Yes, these may sit in different funding pots. Residents understand that. What they do not accept is the suggestion that money ceases to matter simply because it arrived as a grant.
The defence is almost as revealing as the sculpture
The most troubling aspect of this episode is not that some people dislike a piece of art. It is the attitude that £54,000 of government funding represents “no cost” to the public. That mindset treats grant funding as someone else’s money. It is not. Taxpayers should expect the same care, restraint and common sense whether money is collected locally or passed down through Whitehall. Political leadership means accepting responsibility for how public funding is used not hiding behind the label attached to the account.
Our coastline is already Bournemouth’s greatest natural asset. Anything placed upon it at public expense should be capable of enhancing it and commanding confidence. This £54,000 sculpture has certainly created a reaction. What it has not yet created is any convincing sense that BCP Council made the right choice. This is not simply a debate about artistic taste. It is a question of political judgement and once again, the Lib Dem led administration has fallen short.
