Darwin party cost £730,000
Monday 28th December 2009, 12:03PM GMT.
The official unveiling of Quantum Leap in Shrewsbury
The final bill for a year-long party in Shropshire to celebrate the 200th birthday of Shrewsbury-born Charles Darwin was £730,000, it was revealed today.
The budget had originally been set at £500,000 but the celebrations actually cost almost half as much again. It also emerged today that police were called in to investigate the construction of Shrewsbury’s controversial Quantum Leap artwork in October, following a complaint to officers.
- Was it all worth it? Special report in today’s Shropshire Star
Police quickly decided responsibility for any probe should rest with Shropshire Council. Internal auditors from the authority launched an investigation, which is continuing. Police did not bring any criminal charges.
More details were also revealed today on the item-by-item spending, with officials allocating almost £1,500 on balloons, a birthday cake and party invitations.
A £10,000 grant was awarded to an organisation that wanted to develop a Darwin website and more than £2,000 was paid to train staff on how to be helpful to visitors. Those sums were in addition to the construction cost of Quantum Leap, which was to cost £350,000 but spiralled £483,000. It would have been £150,000 higher but an in-kind donation was made to the council.
Today Councillor Jon Tandy, who has been critical of the Darwin celebrations, said: “We wanted a year where members of the public were allowed to get involved. We didn’t want money to be wasted willy nilly.
“In the final analysis, too few members of the public were involved. Quantum Leap was too expensive and too controversial, particularly at a time when there have been cuts in front-line services.”
But George Candler, Shropshire Council’s assistant director for culture and leisure, said a lot of decisions regarding celebrations were made by the former Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council.
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Ironically Darwin did not exactly maintain links with Shrewsbury after his departure as a teenager. He would have been amazed at such a fuss Shrewsbury has made of him.
Report abuse
Where was my invitation?
Report abuse
Given there’s probably about 70,000 taxpayers (cureent or past) in Shrewsbury, that means we all paid a tenner each towards this ‘party’. The least we could expect is a bit of cake and a sausage roll……nothin’!
Report abuse
What exactly were the allegations in the first place to allow the police to consider whether an investigation should be held? Corruption? Fraud? A breach of the Obscene Publications Act?
Report abuse
The piece of artwork? along smithfield road is indeed unusual but I was surprised the other day to see it not lit up at night. I understand that there is to be a garden made aswell, is this finished. Not many people will make the effort to go and see it as it is not very accessible and therefore, the amount of money used for the whole Darwin festival event borders on the obscene. are we not in a recession where everyone are looking to reduce spending. I believe we need to look again at the way money is spent on such ideas, lets have a reality check!
Report abuse
sack all concerned what a waste of public money.
Report abuse
Haven’t seen anybody resign over this fiasco yet
So nobody is going to take responsibility for this waste of money
Congratulations to the ‘Powers that be be’
It looks bl**dy Awful and you’ve turned Shrewsbury into a Laughing stock
You must be Very proud…
Report abuse
It’s only missing Brian Rix with his trousers round his ankles!!
Report abuse
How much more of our hard earned taxes going to be wasted by this ridiculous council. What exactly has been gained ? Are the tourists flocking in to see that abomination by the banks of the river. A downright disgrace,sack the lot.
Report abuse
I’m with you Dave W, why the hell should so much monnies be spent on someone WHO NEVER returned to Shrewsbury when he left as a teenager…..
Report abuse
Darwins links to shrewsbury were as a child , so a lot of fuss realy. Infact other well known people have far more solid links with shrewsbury granted not the same as the evolution idea put forward by Darwin but never the less important and they made their mark in history.
Who were they ??? perhaps the darwin fans could tell us .
Report abuse
Spend our Council tax wisely please. Just pretend it’s your hard earnt cash.
Report abuse
So there we have it, the culmination of a Conservative controlled SABC followed by a Conservative controlled Shropshire council, wasting money on one hand while cutting much needed services or raising cost to our most vulnerable citizens with the other. Pity they can’t spend the money where it is really needed….on the people.
Report abuse
charles who?? i havent really noticed much other than national stuff on the bbc and the natural history museum in london – whats been happening in shrewsbury other than the art thing?
i mean if that’s it – cost benefit analysis is not looking good…
Report abuse
scandalous – i hope someone is sacked for this
Report abuse
Do you think any decendants of Darwin got an invite?
Report abuse
Seems like “Disopondent in Salop” is a product of the “Education, education, education” mantra tabled by “New” Labour……
Report abuse
Oh, for goodness sake! What a bunch on moaning minnies!
As for Shropshire County Council… YOU wanted to take over SABC and the rest of Shropshire. Now you are pretending it has nothing to do with you! Pathetic.
Report abuse
shame on them
Report abuse
that is too much, i like public art but a nice old fashioned statue of darwin like the one at the library would have been good enough for me he already has the whole shopping centre named after him after all
Report abuse
from the comfort of my armchair in devon, this appears a scandallous waste of your money. what are they thinking of spending all that money on someone who lived most of his life in kent.
i should ask for a refund or choose your politicians a little more carefully!
Report abuse
The design,cost and position of the theatre is an ongoing disgrace and disaster. Maybe the location of the sculpture too but on the whole it is a very brave attempt to build something original, exciting and special.
The cost is peanuts in comparison to the cost of Theatre Severn or NEV as we could have called it.
Report abuse
they should have bought a decent striker for shrewsbury town fc instead
Report abuse
shropshire council cannot distance itslef from this project because the same staff and the same conservative councillors who were at shrewsbury and atcham council are still running shropshire council so they are guilty
Report abuse
money to burn……uk one of riches country in the world…..i cant see it…can you..?????
Report abuse
EXCELLENT VALUE FOR MONEY….
provided you’re not picking up the bill yourself
Report abuse
I finally saw Quantum Leap this weekend, what a huge dissappointment, not because of the design but because of its complete lack of scale and ambition especially in relation to the cost. The ‘Angel of the North’ was at first contriversial but it did make a statement, Quantum is just a whimper it won’t put Shrewsbury on any map we took friends from Holland to see it I just felt a bit embarrased!
Report abuse