Was Quantum Leap worth the £1m price tag?
Taxpayers have been left to foot the bill for Shrewsbury's controversial Quantum Leap statue. But is the giant artwork, which commemorates the town's links to naturalist Charles Darwin, worth the money? Read two viewpoints here and have your say.
Is Quantum Leap worth its £1m price tag?
No, says Toby Neal
The Quantum Leap sculpture in Shrewsbury has turned into a financial fiasco and an object lesson in the perils of financing public artwork with taxpayers' money.
Salopians have been sold a pup. When approval was first given for the riverside sculpture to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of that most famous son of Shrewsbury, Charles Darwin, the cost to local taxpayers was put at £210,000.
That figure soon leapt alarmingly to just under £500,000 when it was found that it was slightly out of alignment. And now, amid months of wrangling over who is to blame and who should pay, the total costs have soared to over £1 million.
That is a hefty blow at a time when councils are trying to save every last penny of unnecessary spending.
This whole mess, which began in the days of the defunct Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council, now lies at the door of Shropshire Council.
It is not as if concerns were not raised in the early days. But it is easy to be enthusiastic and visionary when you are spending other people's money.
It is symptomatic of the carelessness and lack of control which sees public money disappearing down the drain in public projects ranging from NHS computer systems to Nimrod aircraft which never leave the ground.
In the private sector, such profligacy would not be accepted and heads would roll. Those who have led Shrewsbury into this financial disaster will be able to shrug and walk away.
In a poll we did two years ago, 53 per cent of Shrewsbury people thought the sculpture was a waste of taxpayers' money.
The way things have evolved, it will be hard to find anybody in the town today who thinks the £1 million-plus cost is justified.
***
Yes, says Andrew Owen
It's not exactly a popular point of view — a bit like defending a notorious criminal — but I think it's possible to speak in defence of Quantum Leap.
Yes, it's cost a lot of money.
Things went wrong. You cannot plan for everything. I'm sure if those behind Quantum Leap had known what was going to happen, they wouldn't have bothered coming up with the idea in the first place.
But they did. And the money has been spent. And the result is, in my opinion, really rather spectacular.
Yes, it's more than unfortunate that all this expense has happened at a time of local and national cost-cutting. Yes, that money could have been spent on health or local services, but it wasn't. You cannot change that, I'm afraid, much as you might like to.
Everything costs, it's just a question of what value you get in return
And don't run off with the idea that it was caused by a bunch of out-of-touch councillors eating caviar and drinking champagne while throwing your money away. They acted with good intentions, for the good of Shrewsbury, and couldn't have known how it was going to turn out in the end.
It's highly doubtful that the council will ever attempt such a project again, and that's a pity.
But hopefully it won't have to spend any more on Quantum Leap.
And Quantum Leap will be there for years to come. Eventually, it'll have paid for itself.
[polldaddy poll=5483587]
