Quantum Leap’s ‘important role in bringing people to Shrewsbury’
Thursday 8th September 2011, 8:20PM BST.
The controversial Quantum Leap sculpture in Shrewsbury has an important role to play in attracting visitors interested in Charles Darwin to the town, it has been claimed.
According to Shropshire Council’s latest figures, last year Quantum Leap and other tourist attractions in Shrewsbury were responsible for contributing more than £137 million to the town’s economy.
Tim King, tourism officer for the local authority, said it would be difficult to give a precise figure on what the sculpture alone was worth to the town in terms of tourism.
“It is public art, like the Darwin Gate. In itself it doesn’t generate anything, but it is part of a bigger Shrewsbury scene,” he said.
The sculpture was originally designed to help celebrate the town’s links with Charles Darwin.
Mr King said: “It is part of the Darwin story which is one of Shrewsbury’s greatest strengths. The more Darwin products we have, the better really. We would like to see more things associated with Darwin in the town.”
His comments came as former Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough councillor Charles Armstrong defended the scheme. He said that it was regrettable that the total costs of the scheme have now passed the £1 million mark after Shropshire Council was ordered to pay Alun Griffiths Contractors an extra £410,000 as well as dealing with a £115,000 bill for legal fees and professional advice.
The original cost of the project was £483,000, but problems with the alignment of the ribs had to be corrected in 2009, leading to a delay in completion and extra costs for the project.
But Mr Armstrong said while mistakes had been made, the sculpture should not just be viewed in financial terms.
He said Quantum Leap, represents a ‘cutting edge bit of engineering’.
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Does anyone in their right mind think anyone is going to visit Shrewsbury to view a £1M concrete slinky spring? I think everyone involved with that project needs their head examined!
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I am delighted to see that this fantastic lump of concrete was partly the reason for £137 million contribution to the town’s economy. I am also sure that all the Shrewsbury traders are equally delighted and enjoying this financial bonus?
So lets employ more experts at Shire hall to come up with more income generation schemes – as my daughter would say …. LOL
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Yes Mr King I can see all the crowds flocking to see £1million worth of concrete and ridicule the waste of money spent… In you’re own words “It doesn’t generate anything” Spot on analysis…..
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give me a million pounds and i’ll bus a million tourists into shrewsbury
silly comment
it will NEVER pay for itself
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Utter tripe.
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I like the Quantum Leap sculpture.
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Oh good. Now can you forward us your address so we, the taxpayers, can send you the bill?
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I am already a Shrewsbury taxpayer. Are you?
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I agree, expensive yet unique..
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I like the Quantum Leap TV series.
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Waste of public money.
Enough Said
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People come to Shrewsbury to see the OLD buildings not the montrous concrete vandalism that the last 50 years of Shrewsbury Council planners and architects have subjected the town to, if it wasnt for the Council owned montrocities like shirehall, market hall, princess house, theatre, and that college building the town would be much the better
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im sorry but mr king is talking nonesense, people come to shrewsbury for shopping they came before the concrete slinky and they will come for years after it has crumbled into the river
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‘Cutting edge bit of engineering’? Poor very language use of English. A skewed sentence mangled to distortion and twisted ask if you me. A like bit itself the object.
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what a load of xxxx who wants to come see a load of concrete stuck on side river bank that looks ugly might as well have built a block old style flats and made it look even worse. get real the thing leap is dam ugly.
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A better investment would have been to spend the £1m on some sub-standard comedians for Theatre Severn (at least we may have got a laugh out of them).
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or do up the granada theatre so everyone in the town has a chance of seeing comedians and live acts
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Yuo don’t need to spend anything to see bad comedians in Shrewsbury, just attend a council meeting!
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Boom! Boom!
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Rubbish!
Having visited Shrewsbury this summer as part of a trip around England I can honestly say seeing your concrete sculpture was not the reason for coming.
The castle, abbey, old building and small streets were of course on the agenda.
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dont try and defend the indefensible this isnt even worth half that price tag – its rediculous waste of MY money
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Old parts of Shrewsbury brings in the tourists , put a visitors book next to the piece of art for the next 5 years and see what comments you get from tourists..
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I think it fits in with the town well i have never seen anything like it anywhere else it is as good as a rusty statue they have up north a great asset to our lovely town and now our elderly that are paying more for home care and meals on wheels will sleep well at night just knowing that this statue is money much better spent that way then keeping our schools open and day centres and the attacks on youth services and all the visitors that come to our town to play hunt the public toilets so those who where involved be very proud as when we find out who you are you will go down in history as PLONKERS as del boy would say as this statue says nothing to me about my life.
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I hadn’t been to Shrewsbury until they built this. Now you can’t keep me away from the place.
Seriously though, as a piece of modern art I do quite like it. It’s just a shame that the budget seems to have overrun by 500%. That was a bit of a cock up to put it mildly.
Anyone who’s ever started a DIY project without thinking it through first and said “I just need a few basic tools and £100 worth of stuff from B&Q” knows full well that it ends up costing them £500 when all’s done and dusted, or more if you have to resort to getting someone else in. Trouble is, once you embark on it you can’t do a U-turn and give up and no matter how much your head says “stop now, it’s getting expensive” you just keep getting your wallet out.
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The budget is 150% over budget for it to be 500% over the total bill would be over £2 million.
Actually, compared to some other public building projects this is actually quite good value e.g. The Scottish parliament, original budget £50 million, eventual cost £650 million or the trams in Edinburgh, original cost £500 million, estimated final cost, nealy 2 Billion.
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Oh yes, £1m against an original budget of £483,000. Around 110% over budget, not 500%.
The BBC’s item reports the original budget as £350,000. If that’s the case then it’s overrun by 187%.
But hey, this isn’t a maths lesson. It still cost a lot more than budgeted.
As you say, it pales into insignificance compared with some projects.
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More spin than a Hotpoint washing machine!
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Theatre at least 1005 over budget.
Horrible Darwin Gate supposed to cost £30,000 and came in at £60.000 hence the terrible sandstone lumps for seating.
Quantum Leap fabulous but further costs incurred due to underpinning required being greater than anticipated which was why siting it so near the river was foolish.
Also the legal costs quibbling with the contractors was over £100,000, crazy!
Why do we elect councillors on the basis of politics and not by merit?
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It is an eyesore full stop. What is beautiful about it ? A nursery child could have desgned something better
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This sculpture may have brought people to the town but are they going to come back when all the public toilets have been sold off?
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that is quite worrying that is his professional view as the man in charge of getting tourists into shrewsbury, no wonder town in dead and the shops are closing down
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A complete blight on Shrewsbury – I am embarrassed whenever I return to see such total rubbish greeting visitors. What fools honestly believe such trash adds value to a beautiful historic town?
Emperors Clothes me thinks – something worthy of the Shrewsbury “elite” ?
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I googled Quantum Leap and the first picture I came across looked nothing like this. It was of a delicate, light beautiful sculpture and not twisted. If this was the image the Council saw and approved then why was it allowed to be changed beyond recognition by the designers? The thing that has been built is clumsy, heavy and dark and the twisted shape does resemble nothing more than a slinky.
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as an ex Salopian I think it is a total waste of money. It is situated where very few tourists will see it. Why will people who see it think of Darwin. There is a perfectly good statue of the man everyone can recognise as the great man outside the library, where arriving tourists by train will see it.
WASTE OF TAXPAYERS MONEY
John Cherrington
Lausanne Switzerland
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do me a favour – dont try to spin it
this is a disaster
just accept it and move on
(and learn from it)
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Paragraph two of the article states:
“According to Shropshire Council’s latest figures, last year Quantum Leap and other tourist attractions in Shrewsbury were responsible for contributing more than £137 million to the town’s economy.”
I would like to know how much of that could seriously be attributed to the presence of the Quantum Leap structure and if they are including it as an attraction that brought people to the town how are they getting their statistics.
The other possibility is that “Quantum Leap” has very little to do with people visiting shrewsbury.
I challenge the council to back up their claims that “Quantum Leap” has made a contribution to the £137M mentioned with hard facts or to issue an apology for the massive blunder made by spending this amount of money on something that has contributed very little to Shrewsbury.
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#13 German tourist
[Having visited Shrewsbury this summer as part of a trip around England I can honestly say seeing your concrete sculpture was not the reason for coming.
The castle, abbey, old building and small streets were of course on the agenda.]
Sounds like you were homesick or something as Germany has loads of castles, mediaeval architecture,small streets, large rivers etc.
It’s got some great contemporary sculptures too.
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Will people stop calling it a sculpture!- it was made from concrete, poured into moulds. Then it was all put on a lorry, driven into town, and then all held together with steel and more concrete. I’m sure Airfix make them!!
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a ill judged comment by the tourist tsar
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Art is by it’s very being a matter of individual taste. Because I personally don’t like something I will not rubbish it. However I have seen the Quantum Leap up close as well as from the balcony at The Severn Theatre and………..
I do not like the Quantum Leap.
I do not believe in any way it is an attraction.
I do not believe Shrewsbury as a town or the residents will benefit by it.
I do not understand how it links to Darwin.
I believe Mr Kings attempts to validate the Quantum Leap are simply straw clutching.
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In order to attract more visitors to the town, attempts should be made to tackle the antisocial behaviour and crime within the loop of the river.
Unfortunately, the town centre has a reputation for violence and disorder, and this is a deterrent to would be tourists and visitors; not just those from far away parts of the UK, but also those from within the county itself.
The funds could have been deployed in crime prevention and detection measures, which would have made the town centre a safer and more visitor friendly place.
No matter how you feel about Quantum Leap as a piece of public art, the notion that such pieces attract visitors to towns or cities in isolation is nonsensical. The holistic approach must be taken and that starts with creating a safe and pleasant atmosphere.
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[Art is by it’s very being a matter of individual taste. Because I personally don’t like something I will not rubbish it.]
Then you proceed to do so!
I have personally been envious of Birmingham and other cities having some great public art.
The Iron man in Victoria Square is one of my favourites.
Mr King does not need to validate it, it is liked by many towns people and it is not made of straw it is made from the aggregates (geology) that Shropshire is so famous for and Darwin was hugely interested in.
This council has wasted so much money with redundancies of fat cats, office refurbishment and stuff that we do not ever see a return for.In this instance I and some others at least have something in return for paying our taxes.
On the other hand I really do not like the Darwin Gate in the Mardol which was the least attractive of the six we were presented with to choose from, so I sympathise if you do not like the Quantum Leap but please do not underestimate the concept behind the subtle connections with Darwin.
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We have just been informed that the Quantum Leap saga has been reported in The Sun newspaper.
So now the whole of the UK is aware that Shrewsbury’s local authority is committing funds to irrelevant extravagances at a time when it is reducing its spend on what many would deem to be more worthwhile causes. Very embarrassing.
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Come on your all wrong! id love to come to look at a concrete mess pile, with a lovley view of the slowly rotting wood of the diaster ridden theatre in the background. Two classic examples of how not to build. Viva la salop!
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If you actually read The Sun well…
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Adjudication should be an inexpensive and quick route to resolve contractual disputes and this decision has favoured the contractor and appears to have got the Architects off scot-free. Fees of £115,000 appear to be excessive and in hindsight, litigation at the outset may have provided a more favourable outcome for little extra cost.
Indeed, this decision may lead to Shropshire Council seeking recompense through the courts.
The Quantum Leap problem of rib alignment appears to have surfaced after Shrewsbury & Atcham ceased to exist, making Shropshire Council the prime target for alleged client mal-administration claim.
It would be interesting to read the adjudicators report. I would expect a sculpture of such size, complexity and weight to have a robust precise engineered design and find it rather puzzling that the adjudicator refers to “inadequate design specification” for reason of default.
The sculpture is great but I feel is in the wrong location. It is worthy of a large public space in the town centre where the visitor can appreciate the designer’s ingenuity from close-up and at distance, and not impede with lack of space and obstacles(trees/riverbank/roadside). It would also make an excellent gateway landmark, suitable for Bayleys roundabout on the ring road.
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