Shropshire Star

Mark Andrews on Saturday: Public art, a white elephant and the road to a police state

People have been invited to submit their designs for art projects along the latest extension to the Metro tram line, running from Wednesbury to Dudley and Brierley Hill.

Published
WOLVERHAMPTON COPYRIGHT MNA MEDIA TIM THURSFIELD 13/11/21 .All the Metro services have been suspended due to cracks on the tracks for at least four weeks. Pictured are workmen at The Crescent metro station, Bilston, attempting to repair the track..

And why not? They can't be much worse than the 'art' that seems to blight every public infrastructure project these days. Could they really be any worse than the hideous orange metalwork on the Dudley southern bypass at Netherton, or the droopy phallic symbol on the Black Country Route in Bilston?

Then there's the ridiculous 'Slinky' artwork beside the River Severn in Shrewsbury. And the idiotic prancing horses that manage to make the already ghastly railway journey from Wolverhampton to Birmingham even more unsightly.

'Artwork' on Cinder Bank Island in Dudley

Anyhow, for the new Metro link, here's a few ideas, in keeping with the project: sculptures of trams with cracks down the middle, some statues of men in hi-viz jackets pointing at holes in the ground. And, of course, a nice, big white elephant.

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And if people think that is unfair, then I'm sorry, but I'm not convinced there is any benefit whatsoever in spending millions of pounds converting a much-needed railway line so that slow-running trams can run along it.

Trams are fine as a way of getting from one part of a large city to another, such as in Amsterdam or Berlin. There might even be an argument for extending them around Birmingham, although I don't see why that city should have any more money from the public purse, it gets enough as it is. But as a means of travelling between one town or city to another, they are useless: too slow, too unreliable and cost too much money when a bus can do exactly the same job.

West Midland Metro: White elephant?

If 'levelling up' is to mean anything, it should be about returning trains to the disused railway lines, and leaving the roads free for cars and buses. It's a proven formula.

As for talk about 'regeneration', trams did little to regenerate Rotherham town centre. They just made it easier for people to go elsewhere instead. Mainly to the out-of-town shopping centre at Meadowhall.

A giant Slinky? The Darwin memorial sculpture in Shrewsbury

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The response by Humberside police was 'not proportionate' when it recorded a 'non-crime hate incident' against former officer Harry Miller over his comments on Twitter, a judge has ruled.

That is surely a good candidate for understatement of the year.

The officers who visited Mr Miller quickly established no crime had taken place. But they recorded the incident anyway because the person who complained said he was "transphobic".

The role of the police is to gather evidence of actual crimes that have been committed, not to amass details of people whose views are considered insufficiently progressive. That is the road to a police state.

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