Controversial street art painted on a hoarding at Burnham-On-Sea’s Tuckers Garage site looks set to be covered up with a council banner, it has emerged.
A heated debate has been taking place on social media during the past few days regarding the suitability of the ‘tag’ art, pictured here, which was painted during last weekend’s BOSfest.
Some residents are strongly opposed to the art, saying it is out of keeping, while others support it and say it brightens up the site.
Burnham and Highbridge Town Council Clerk Tatiana Cant said on social media on Wednesday evening: “This needs further discussion. For now I have arranged for the banner which used to be there to be put back.”
A ‘Welcome to Burnham-On-Sea’ banner was previously bought by the Town Council to brighten up the hoardings due to there being no sign of the long-awaited building work at the site.
On social media, one user, Stuart Thornton, said: “Nothing wrong with tidying up the town and making it look better but has to be done the right way to entice people here. I don’t see what was done to the hoardings as any help at all, it serves no purpose, goodness knows what it actually says at a glance I don’t feel it does anything for the town at all apart from helping it look even worse than it is… It’s just a mess.”
Another, Anji Duff, added: “Wow! Love this! Genius way to add colour and movement to an eyesore.”
But Nathaniel Topping added: “It’s such a shame to see such negativity surrounding this after such a wonderful weekend. So many people worked tirelessly in the months leading up to this to bring culture and art from all spectrums to the town for people of all ages, something that Burnham and many other small towns have been lacking in the past decade. Whilst many of you have complained about the street art, none of you seem to care about other parts of the town that wasting away.”
He adds: “At one point the council considered spending £20,000 on installing WiFi on the beach before even thinking about giving the town a new lick of paint. One of the most common things people notice when visiting if how much life had been drained by lack of proper maintenance, live music, art and culture the town has endured in the past decade, and it’s really no surprise when the people who try and revitalise the town are hounded for their efforts. I had great weekend, found myself unable to leave when trying because I was finding myself spending time with wonderful people, and that wouldn’t have happened had the event not been put on. So thank you to everyone involved, you did a great job, I truly hope these comments don’t deter you from doing it again.”
But Malcolm Foster said: “All this nasty spray paint is bringing the town down! Why are these dreadful ugly images allowed to spoil our town? Go ruin somewhere else!”
Alex Turco added: “I’m sure the BoSFest organisers have worked very hard for what by all accounts has been a pleasant weekend and I’m sure many have enjoyed it. The thing is though the music, performances, drama etc are now all just memories. The art is more permanent. And with any art it does not matter how talented the artist might be, opinions of it are entirely subjective. And the Tucker’s hoarding is not to my taste. The fact is that the art is diametrically opposed to the brand values and what we are trying to achieve in our very nearby business.”
One of the organisers, Sophie Nicholson, responded: “Goodness me with all these negative comments it really makes me wonder why we work so hard to put on an amazing event for free for our local community to enjoy. You always get a couple that have to complain. Oh well looking forward to helping to organise the spray artists for next year for majority of people to enjoy.”
Property developer Abracore won approval in 2014 to build two blocks of three-storey buildings at the former Tucker’s Garage site in Victoria Street, but building work has never begun. The site was previously occupied by the former garage which was demolished 11 years ago, as we featured here.
