Bury Council are working with sustainable transport charity Sustrans, asking local residents to nominate famous faces or local heroes to appear in a piece of permanent public art on the Woolfold Gap in Bury.
The Woolfold Gap project, which is part of the Kirklees trail, is one of 79 schemes across the UK that Sustrans are involved in to bring Big Lottery funding to local communities and areas. As a universal theme, each local project is to feature a Portrait Bench at a local beauty spot.
The artwork comprises of a bench with three 2-D life-size silhouette figures standing behind it cut out of sheet steel which will naturally weather over time as the Portrait Bench becomes a distinctive part of our local landscape. Sustrans want these silhouettes to immortalize local icons whether it be famous faces, characters from Bury’s past or someone who is living in Bury today – and Bury Council want to hear who you think it should be.
A planning application for the lottery-funded foot/cycle bridge on the Kirklees Trail at Woolfold has been submitted and the Council is getting ready for a start on site next September. The public art work forms a key part of the project and the portrait bench will be positioned at the southern end of the new bridge, from where there are excellent views of the Kirklees Valley.
Councillor Dorothy Gunther, Executive Member for Environment and Transport, said 'Bridging the Woolfold Gap will give us a great walking and cycling route into Bury town centre and the portrait bench will give the path a real local flavour. I can think of a few local characters we could immortalise in the sculptures, but we'd like to hear what other people think.'
Nominations for the people to feature on these nominations will be discussed at the next meeting of the Kirklees Valley in April. If you have any ideas as to which local icons should be represented, please contact Chris Wilkinson in the Council's Planning Division at Craig House, Bank Street, Bury or email c.m.wilkinson@bury.gov.uk
