New sculpture trail being painted by schoolchildren for Telford town centre
A new sculpture trail to highlight the importance of protecting the oceans is being created for Telford Town Centre by local schoolchildren.
Shropshire-based British Ironwork Centre has joined forces with Telford & Wrekin Council to launch the School's Ocean Trail Project.
Centre chairman, Clive Knowles, said he wanted to create further awareness about marine life.
"Every day, our ocean and marine life are exposed to a number of hardships, many of which are directly impacted by humanity and the way that we live our everyday lives," he said.
"With eight million metric tons of plastic entering our ocean every year, 80 per cent of marine pollution coming from land-based activity, and our coral reef on the brink of extinction, it really is time that we all step up to better protect our ocean.
"Whilst hundreds of ocean clean-up and protection initiatives exist across the world, we feel that education lies at the heart of it all."
The 26 fish sculptures, have been primed and readied to be painted or decorated by school students.
Impact
"Each participating school will receive a fish, which they must paint/decorate using their chosen design," he added.
"Once the project is completed and all decorated fish have been handed to the Telford & Wrekin Council, a sculpture trail will be created spanning across Telford Town Centre.
"The trail will then allow young people from all across the country to reflect upon the way we interact with our ocean, with every participating and non-participating school benefitting from the educational messages behind each fish design."
Councillor Carolyn Healy, Telford & Wrekin Council cabinet member for Climate Change, said: “We are so excited about this new project in partnership with the British Ironwork Centre.
"This will be a great opportunity for school pupils across the borough to learn about the impact we are all having on our oceans.
"Even living this far from the sea, our actions still have an impact on marine life and those impacts will affect all of us.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the British Ironwork Centre for providing these fish to us for this project and can’t wait to see what the finish trail looks like next year.”
