The Chartist Mural - Newport Council's last chance to grab victory from the jaws of defeat

[See update at bottom of page in which Michael Sheen makes exactly the same recommendations]

Few people can deny that Newport City Council has made a stunning error of judgement over the Chartist Mural, and incredibly it looks like are they now stumbling towards yet another PR disaster? But it needn't be the case. There is a solution that will suit everyone...



Newport City Council is in a serious predicament. It clearly misjudged how people felt about the Chartist Mural and obviously never expected the reaction to the moronic and cynical act of its surprise destruction two days before a well publicised protest march to save it.

Perhaps they expected that by ripping it down when they did, they would be faced with little more than flash-in-the-pan outrage that would die down quickly. How wrong they were.

Instead, the Council finds itself faced with growing anger and a highly organised and determined campaign to uncover who ordered the mural's destruction and the truth behind the scheming in the run-up to this act.

The campaign is employing a range of highly effective tactics, from snapping at the ankles of Councillors wherever and whenever they can; to gaining national and regional media coverage; to successfully enlisting the support of celebrities; to making Freedom of Information requests aimed at finally pulling the covers off the entire story from start to finish. It's not over by a long way and this really isn't looking good for the Council. The feeling on the street is that a lot of very dirty linen will shortly be uncovered. And as things are uncovered, the Campaign will only gather momentum until it gets its head-on-a-spike.

But it now looks like the Council is stumbling towards yet another suicidal public relations disaster as it tries to change the dialogue to a positive one about what the city should have as a replacement Chartist memorial.

The Council has started on the wrong foot by once again treating the people of Newport as idiots in foolishly offering them a 'vote' on four pathetic sounding options of its own choice. Presumably the argument will go 'Well, we offered you choice via a democratic process, so we now have a mandate to deliver something which is equally as insulting as the demolition of the original mural. Live with it!'

Note: Since this blog was written, and following widespread criticism, the online voting form has been amended with the addition of a box into which you can now add your own suggestion. However, adding a suggestion box a day AFTER voting has started serves only to make any result invalid. For example, if 2000 people voted yesterday for a mural (before the suggestion box), but 1000 voted today for a mural, but added the suggestion that it should be an exact replica of the original, the council is very likely to say people voted for a mural, but 2:1 in favour of a mural that WASN'T an exact replica. The Have Your Say voting process therefore needs to be reset.

But back to the blog as it stood before this latest development... 

The Council's kneejerk attempt to once again put this issue to bed is wide of the mark and the options it offers simply will not do. One of the options is a digital project? Don't make me laugh! As soon as the first bulb goes pop in a year's time it will fall in to disrepair eventually never to work again.

Any replacement memorial needs to be at least as impressive as the Kenneth Budd mural, not some token gesture hidden at the back of Newport Indoor Market. The Chartist Mural WAS popular and much loved. Let's not forget, in the 35 years that it stood in the underpass off John Frost Square, it was only ever vandalised once - by three workmen and a digger employed by the Council in October 2013.

Grabbling Victory From the Jaws of Defeat.
The Council has one chance - just one - to turn this ongoing PR disaster into a positive. It's quite simple, and it doesn't have to cost the earth. Certainly it will be a LOT less expensive than the ridiculous and increasingly suspect figure the Council claimed it would cost to save the mural in the first place.

The Council needs to commission a replacement mural, something similar in scale and scope and at least as accessible and visible as Kenneth Budd's original. But the Council can add value by turning it into a community project and getting local schools and community groups to do the actual mosaic work. In this way the project will also help to educate a generation about the place the Chartist Uprising had in ushering in the democracy the world enjoys today. It will also tie the people of Newport into the finished work.

Everything about the project needs to be local. It needs to embrace the local artistic community that can work on the design and management of the project. And it can, and should, also embrace issues such as sustainability by using reclaimed local materials.

In short, the mural replacement should be an immaculate and prestigious project that stands as an example of how the Council CAN deliver an all-embracing iconic work of public art - one that stands as a testament to Newport and the Chartists, one that the people of Newport feel they have a stake in, and one that the City can stand proudly alongside, promoting it as something to come and see when you visit the Friar's Walk shopping development.

Anything less simply won't be accepted.

Newport City Council, you have one chance here. Don't screw it up again. Do what's right.

Update: On Friday 18th November, Hollywood actor Michael Sheen (Newport born] issued an open letter to the people of Newport through the Argus. I'm happy to say Michael makes the very same recommendations about a new mural, public ownership and getting local schools and communities involved. To read Michael's letter, click HERE