With works of art such as the Lockmeadow Millennium Bridge and the Double Helix in Maidstone Millennium River Park, the County Town has already taken the plunge into public art development.

Now Maidstone council hopes to embrace creativity even further by committing itself to a nine-year Public Art along the River project, which includes ideas such as wall painting and lighting initiatives to enhance Maidstone’s appearance. It is estimated the scheme will cost £500,000 with the council committing £50,000.

FOR

Alan Reading is president of Maidstone Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Maidstone Tourism Strategy Forum. He also runs his own graphic design business from home. He says:

It seems to me a bad idea to discard the possibility of developing art work in Maidstone simply because it appears modern. Certainly this project needs more discussion and nothing should go ahead using public money after anything less than detailed discussion.

However, anything that enhances the River Medway and Maidstone is not only desirable but is essential because we really need to develop tourism in the area to a far, far greater extent than we are right now. We need vision. And with the history we have available to us in this town we should be able to come up with some fantastic works of art which are totally appropriate to the area.

So many people living round here do not know about the history surrounding them. And this would be a great opportunity to rectify that. For example, this town has a strong link with the origin of the American Stars and Stripes flag, but nobody knows why. They may find it fascinating to learn about that.

If nothing else, for the people of Maidstone it is essential that they know what they have on their doorstep. We need to show them how good Maidstone can look and how much effort we will go to to make their environment better.

But as well as that Maidstone has now become a real destination for people from other parts of the country and abroad. So the more reason we can give them to visit the more people we will have bringing wealth into the town. That can never be a bad thing.

One of the best ideas to have come up in recent times was from an arts development officer we had who suggested that we have artists selling their creations on the riverbank on Sunday mornings. That would be such a fresh, cosmopolitan and European thing to do.

But it has never happened, as with so many things in Maidstone it got brushed under the carpet and forgotten.

We must start flagging ideas up - we need art and culture to give people reasons to spend time enjoying the place they live in.”

AGAINST

Former Mayor of Maidstone, Cllr Frances Brown, (Lab) is chairwoman of Maidstone Borough Council’s culture and leisure overview and scrutiny committee.

It is not that I am against us developing the town, but I am against us jumping into something which at this rate could have a detrimental effect on Maidstone’s appearance and reputation. What I am against is us rushing in and getting it wrong.

We have to be very, very sure of what we are going to do and what we want to achieve. We must make sure whatever goes ahead is relevant to the area and will please the public. We don’t want to end up with another totem pole disaster.

There are still people who do not understand what that pole is all about and it was seen as a total waste of funds.

Naturally there are people who like it too. That's human nature. We don’t all like the same thing. But when spending public funds it is essential that you spend it carefully and with a heap of forethought.

We seem to be of the impression that the Maidstone Trust is looking after the project, but I would like more control from the council.

We don’t want to suffer from feeling powerless once this gets under way. And that is especially so when it comes to the finances, which we have so little information on right now.

Maidstone Borough Council are, I understand, putting in a certain amount but then the rest is to come from sponsorship and donation. We need to ensure that we have enough funds to keep this project moving year on year, rather than reach a target one year and develop the art, and then the next year have to abandon due to lack of funds.

I also think the art should be more centralised so that people can walk round it.

Some of the areas proposed in the project, such as Barming, are quite far out and if we are actually going to go ahead and spend this money it needs to be accessible to people on foot.

People would think that we were wasting precious cash if we used it to put inappropriate pieces of modern art randomly round town.

Everything needs to be relevant and everything needs to be done for a purpose. The pieces of art should be indigenous to the area at least. More thought must go into this or it will turn into a minefield.