City heritage campaigners are objecting to a plan to dismantle an historic bicycle mural and use it for school signposts.
An earlier proposal to move the bicycle mural at the Stantonbury Centre and rebuild it near an underpass has been “superseded”, says a report presented to Milton Keynes Council.
Last year, supermarket owner Aldi was given permission to build a new 1,790 square metre store at the centre, in Purbeck. The discount retailer was ordered to come up with a plan for how they would dismantle and re-erect.
The scheme has to be approved by council planners before the new supermarket can be built.
City campaigners are now urging the council to stop the mural being split up.
“Following more detailed discussions with Stantonbury International School,” says a 48-page report from Avonside Construction Management that is being considered by planners, “the relocation of the mural that was originally proposed… has now been superseded.”
Report author, Mark Pinfield, adds: “The mural is now proposed to be installed in multiple locations within Stantonbury School Campus to act as signposts around the school. The signposts are to be installed by the school’s contractor Kier Group.”
Created in the late 1970s, the mural is at the south facing exterior gable of the shops and the report adds that even though it is “not subject to statutory protection, it is known to be widely appreciated and valued locally.”
The mural is set to be placed in protective pallets, and stored within two steel containers on the school site before being reused.
Ceramic artist John Watson, of Wavendon, created the mural with the help of children from Stantonbury Campus to celebrate ‘childhood happiness and enthusiasm’.
It contains around 1,200 tiles which were made in the school’s art department before being fixed to the brick wall. The report says that it appears to be “structurally sound”, although more tests are needed.
But campaigners from the Public Arts Trust MK want the plan to be re-thought before it is too late.
Ian Michie, chairman of the Public Arts Trust, Milton Keynes (PAT-MK), said a decision is due from the Government on whether the site should receive listed status.
Historic England rejected that, but the decision has been appealed to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
“It should stay in one piece,” said Mr Michie. “It is a massive cultural asset in a place that wants to be a capital of culture.
“I would appeal to Aldi on the basis that it is never too late until it is too late.”
And Tim Skelton, of PAT-MK and MK Forum, said dismantling the mural and would ruin its “artistic integrity”.
The mural contains pictures of real children with bicycles, with their names in different places. He says it would be difficult to dismantle the mural in a way that keeps the names with the pictures.
“We are greatly concerned about the proposal to disaggregate it. It is a key work of art.”
