$100k coronavirus tribute artwork gets green light from Northern Beaches Council
A heated debate at Northern Beaches Council has erupted over the commissioning of a COVID-19 memorial artwork — set to cost ratepayers at least $100,000 from a pre-allocated pool of money from merger savings — which will be installed along the Manly to Palm beach walkway.
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A last-ditch effort to stop the commissioning of a public artwork on Sydney’s northern beaches that commemorates coronavirus has failed.
Northern beaches councillors clashed heads on Tuesday night as they debated the budget for the proposed tribute.
Councillors Rory Amon, Vincent De Luca and Pat Daley moved to rescind a motion approving the sculpture, saying they had concerns there was no maximum spend allocated.
A minimum of $100,000 was allocated from the council’s merger savings fund, established by Administrator Dick Persson soon after the amalgamation of Manly, Warringah and Pittwater councils, in 2016.
The bid for a sculpture on the Manly to Palm Beach walkway, along with a quasi-arts festival, was put forward by Cr Penny Philpott to aid the struggling arts community.
Cr De Luca said he had “never seen such an insensitive proposal” and “disregard for the suffering of those who have small business that have gone broke and for residents forced onto Centrelink”.
“Council staff confirmed that this money will no benefit the 7000 artists that it was claimed it would benefit and it was confirmed indeed one artist could benefit,” Cr De Luca said.
“They confirmed the maximum spend was capped at $1.7m and upon a vote of councillors any of that merger savings funds could have been reallocated.”
He said there are 145 reports of broken footpaths and council staff have evaluated it would cost $435,000.
“If the 170 new footpaths should be built on the northern beaches that could cost more than $15m and the merger funds could have been spent on that or could go towards rate reductions.”
There was also comments about misleading pictures of a “germ” sculpture on the sand.
“It is going on the coastal walk, not the beach as Channel 7 reported,” Cr De Luca explained.
Cr Rory Amon said he was “disappointed” with last night’s outcome.
“Council didn’t approve the rescission motion and its an indictment on council’s representation of the community who were clearly against the proposal,” Cr Amon said.
“Often people put up proposals and sometimes they attract some community support and in this case almost everyone who I’ve spoken to has opposed to it.
“I think council has shown a lack of leadership in the process.”
He said the next steps will include preparation of a design brief which will go out for tender and any proposed expenditure will have to go back to council.
Deputy Mayor Candy Bingham said she was concerned the motion has turned into a “beat up”.
“What started as a simple idea to support the arts community has become a political football. The arts working group will be meeting on Thursday where they will set a cap on the amount of money for this art work,” Cr Bingham said.
“The important thing is nobody has seen what has been proposed yet and it’s sad people are so critical when we don’t even know what our creative artists are going to come up with. Let’s see what the submissions look like for what could be a very special project.”
The motion was coined by Cr Penny Philpott who was happy it “went through”.
“Now the hard work starts. It’s up to the appointed working groups to get this right and it is going to be something truly worthwhile on the northern beaches and not a silly germ on the beach, like some have made it out to be,” Cr Philpott said.
“The fake news really isn’t worth worrying about because it really is just a beat up and people trying to score political points.
“The reactions on social media is not a true representation of the community, the arts are getting behind this. Without artists what’s the point?”
Councillors De Luca, Alex McTaggart, Amon, Daley, Stuart Sprott, Kylie Fergus and David Walton voted for the rescission motion. Meanwhile, Mayor Michael Regan, Sarah Grattan, Roslyn Harrison, Sue Heins, Penny Philpott, Ian White, Natalie Warren and Candy Bingham voted against it.