Artwork scheme to brighten Telford underpass
Young people in Sutton Hill are to brighten up an eyesore underpass by creating artwork for the walls in the latest scheme to benefit from Telford & Wrekin Council’s Your Money, Your Projects fund.
The Bluebell Underpass in Cuckoo Oak Ward is going to get a facelift thanks to a £750 grant from the fund, which has made £1,000 available to each of the council’s 54 elected councillors to put forward proposals for their area.
The project will be co-ordinated and administered by Madeley Parish Council as part of an existing programme called Smile On Sutton Hill.
It will be supervised and delivered by Groundwork West Midlands together with a team of local volunteers assisted by West Mercia Probation Service and the Community Payback Scheme.
The project will enable young people to work with a graffiti artist and design templates which will be transferred on to the walls of the underpass, which links Sutton Hill with nearby playing fields.
It is hoped that work will be undertaken in spring 2012 after the underpass was highlighted by local young people as something that needed improving to make it safer and more pleasant.
The young people themselves suggested they could refurbish the underpass make it more welcoming through an art project.
Councillor Shaun Davies, cabinet member for Environment, Co-operative Council and Partnerships, said: “This is a fantastic initiative and exactly the kind of scheme that Your Money, Your Projects is for.
“I am very proud of the young people who have instigated the project to improve the Bluebell Underpass as they clearly have a commitment to make their local area the best it can possibly be.
“I was therefore delighted to approve the application for £750 funding to Your Money, Your Projects for the art project and I look forward to seeing the scheme come to fruition.”
Madeley Parish Council clerk Kath Petty said: “We are very pleased that the bid to get funding to improve the Bluebell Underpass has been successful and I’m sure the artwork will look fantastic when it is done.”
Your Money Your Projects echoes the ethos of a Co-operative Council and has involved significant input from town and parish councils as well as residents in choosing which schemes will be funded.
