Group support sculpture plans

ANNAN Community Council have given their backing to an art centrepiece project planned for the town. At their meeting on Monday evening, they agreed to donate £1000 towards Annan The History Town’s proposed ‘Spirit of the Annan’ sculpture. The History Town are on a mission to raise £100k to construct a statue at the site of the old Everholm Play Park, at the bottom of Battery Street. Sculptor Nate Robinson, the man tasked with designing the artwork, which will celebrate Annan’s heritage, has already held several forging workshops where members of the community have created their own unique pieces which will form a part of the centrepiece. ATHT project delivery and engagement coordinator Gail McPhillips was in attendance at the community council’s meeting earlier this week to provide an update on the project. Gail said: “We are just about at the point to submit a planning application. Things will start to be evolving and moving quite soon, I think it’s quite important that the community can see it’s moving. “(So far), we have made 300 pieces for the sculpture and we have engaged 1000 people in the community. It’s captivated people’s imagination.” Meanwhile, plans are also afoot to redevelop the area surrounding the sculpture with a garden, seating area, sensory space, some play equipment and to bring the pavilion back into use as a community cafe, with the changing facilities being accessible to sports clubs. Gail added: “At the moment the old play park is neglected. We want to bring people in – not just visitors but also people who live in Annan. “It’s a lovely space, it’s a nice space for people to come down to and we want to encourage people to go there.” It was also explained the materials used in the sculpture would not suffer damage if the area was to flood, while the 37 parking spaces in the Everholm Car Park will remain as they are.