A COUNCIL has been condemned for squandering £5,000 on wrapping bollards with coloured paper – which was removed a week later.
Fife Council is slashing 300 jobs to help plug a £20m black hole in its budget and in some areas, up to 28% of children live in poverty.
But that didn’t stop officials paying a Glasgow firm to cover bollards in a Cowdenbeath street to “spark a conversation about the future”.
The temporary coverings caused astonishment and outrage in the town with locals describing them as like duvets from the 1990s or “unicorn vomit”.
Nadfly, an art studio in Glasgow, was commissioned to carry out the work to supposedly brighten up the street. The 64 bollards were covered on October 19 and the paper removed yesterday (thu).
Local Tory Councillor Darren Watt said the project was a “ridiculous and pointless gimmick”.
He said: “Wrapping brightly coloured paper around some bollards for a week might bring short-term hope and enthusiasm, but that will quickly diminish when we are back to reality and see little to no difference or improvements.
“Cleaning up pavements, road signs, street furniture, benches, bins etc would make a huge difference.
“I’ve been told by constituents they look like duvets from the 1990s. Or like a unicorn has vomited all over the high street.”
Locals were equally unimpressed. Stuart Hughes, 60, a project material controller, said: “I can’t understand why they’d go for something as stupid as that. People are fed up and it definitely has not enriched the High Street. It’s made a mockery instead. That £5k could have given every school child some fruit and veg.”
Alex Hoggan, 63, a driving instructor, said: “They’re naff. It is a stupid waste of money. They could’ve spent the money on kids, schools, anything. Breakfast for the wee kids that can’t afford it. It’s s***e.”
Stephen Duffy, 53, who has worked on the High Street for 22 years, said: “Total waste of money. Wasted resources.”
Fife Council were also criticised by John O’Connell, Chief Executive at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, who said: “Taxpayers are often told that every penny of their taxes are needed for essential services, but stories like that show that this is just not the case.
“No one wants councils to spend our cash this wastefully, and whilst this is a particularly silly example, it speaks of a wider truth about how politicians treat our money. Fife Council should think very carefully about daring to raise council tax again when their spending priorities are so skewed.”
The council is expected to lose nearly 300 jobs in the next few years in order to plug a large financial gap of £20m in the budget. A leisure centre and swimming pool were shut in March this year to save cash.
Kevin Sayer, Community Manager from Fife Council, said: “This was a one week installation aimed at sparking a conversation about the future of the high street.”
The council confirmed that the project cost £5,000. It said the wrapping paper cost £340 with the rest spent on a week-long consultation process with locals.
No-one was available for comment from Nadfly but on one of their flyers in a Cowdenbeath shop window they stated the project was a “bold and colourful intervention that will serve as the starting point for inspiring conversations about the future design of the area.”
