8 hours ago
Mosaic in Freshney Place in Grimsby could not be saved, council says
A mosaic in a Grimsby shopping centre has been demolished, despite a campaign to save it. North East Lincolnshire Council (NELC) said it had looked at removing the tiles, one by one, from the 1977 Queen's Silver Jubilee Mosaic in Freshney the authority said the artwork was "cracking extensively" during the removal process and the contractors told them nothing further could be done to extract the a statement, NELC said it took "extensive specialist advice and also consulted with local heritage organisations" for ideas on how to remove it safely.
The demolition is part of the Freshney Place leisure scheme works to transform the shopping centre's western end. The local authority insisted that progress on the redevelopment had not taken precedent over the consideration for the mosaic. However, Councillor Robson Augusta expressed his disappointment and said concerns about the mosaic's future did not appear to have been addressed beforehand.
'Troubling'
"The mosaic was a valued part of Grimsby's heritage, and concerns were raised early on about its future," he said."It's troubling that these concerns do not appear to have been meaningfully addressed before action was taken. Regeneration should be a collaborative process, one that includes local voices and respects the history and character of our town."According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a petition to save the mosaic gathered more than 1,250 signatures in February. Grimsby, Cleethorpes and District Civic Society also made representations about its said he would have liked to have seen "creative alternatives" to preserve and incorporate the mosaic into the new development before the action was council said it had sought specialist advice for ideas on the mosaic's removal, and arranged for a scan and high resolution photographs for preservation and future reproduction. "We will be involving the community in finding a good town centre location to put the images on show, displaying the full-size mosaic to its best effect in a prominent place," said a NELC spokesperson.
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