PASW Regional Newsletter: Spring 2002
Regional Projects - Penzance Passenger Transport Interchange
The process of appointing a Lead Artist to work alongside the design team on key elements of the redevelopment of the railway station environs, the bus and coach station, and heliport shuttle bus pick up/set down point in Penzance got underway at the end of December. If all goes to schedule, the Lead Artist will be on site by mid-February.
The budget allocation for the scheme is provisionally £245,500, with £188,000 of this being found through cost of materials within the scope of the overall scheme.
Opportunities for artist-interventions in a number of key elements of the site include a major paving scheme, street furniture and bus shelters, and hard and soft landscaping. The gestation of the project has been a long one, with the first approach to Cornwall County Council's Transportation Unit, who are co-ordinating the project, about the inclusion of a significant Public Art programme as part of the overall redevelopment of the Penzance Interchange being made by consultant Geoff Swallow back in November 1999. Partly this long development phase has been due to the complexity of legal and site ownership issues, as well as assembling a funding package for the scheme, the total cost of which is £664,000. The steering group managing the overall project has included Cornwall County and Penwith District Councils, and Penzance Town Council; Railtrack, and bus and train operators, First Western and Wales and West. In today's rail operating environment, any negotiations are likely to be complicated, but among other problems during the development of the project, Wales and West lost its operating franchise, and the problems of dealing with Railtrack during the last few months are generally known.
The overall scheme is now awaiting confirmation of Objective One funding from GOSW. However, the Public Art element of the scheme has been secured with a £57,500 RALP award. This will cover the artists' fees and project management of the scheme. It is anticipated that the scheme with provide work for at least 5 artists commissioned to work on site, with many more local artists being involved through training/mentoring and workshop activity around the scheme.
The Lead Artist will be working alongside scheme architect Robert Allen to identify specific Public Art opportunities, an overall theme for the site which reflects its location, cultural and mythical elements as 'the end of the line', the site's significance of a hub for many different means of transport (including the Mounts Bay leg of the National Cycle Route), and its historical importance to Penzance - coincidentally Penlee House Gallery has a major exhibition in 2002 commemorating the 150th anniversary of the coming of the railway to Penzance.
Geoff Swallow of Truro-based regeneration consultants CPD Uccello, is project managing the scheme, and any enquiries can be directed to him at [email protected] or on 01872 242441.