Stan Laurel and the County Square

I have major concerns about this project, however as it has gone through its consultation process and I did not participate (being immersed in teaching IT worldwide), now is not the time to gripe.

I accept the idea of having a statue of Stan, but am concerned that it should not be installed in such a way that it remains there more than say ten years.

The possibility of changing the emphasis in future needs to be thought about now.

Replacement of the statue with something else would appear to be fairly straight forward. The thing that concerns me are the rays in the pavement that will radiate out from the statue. They will have catchy phrases engraved in their surface which will be difficult to change, so they need redesigning now, before they have been made and installed.

Why would we want to change?

1. Stan does not represent the vitality of Ulverston, something we are proud of - he never lived here.

2. We have been sold the myth that coach loads of tourists will come to visit. What will we feel when this doesn't happen? If they come, will they visit the real town and spend in our shops.We should concentrate more on our regular visitors, who are concerned about the run-down state of the town centre.

3. Stan may be popular and known to the age group making the decisions but how about the young people that are the visitors of the future?

We have other things that have become synonymous with young Ulverston :

The Lantern Parade and the Flag Fortnight - thanks to Welfare State International - the activities of UCAN who took over the running of the finale of the procession at Ford Park and have added spice to life in our town.
The Mural in Bolton's Place, done by the children of the town.
The many festivals of all kinds that are driven by many local people.

We have several living individuals :
Chris Brammall, nationally acclaimed sculptor in steel, Keith Tyson,Turner Prize winning artist, Laura Barnett, LMB Design at The Bleach House Gallery, spring to mind,

The people behind our many varied shops - those that ran fashion week, Smith and Harrisons ...
The people behind our industries - Oxley.

Let's celebrate our vibrant town - not our fictitious past!