{"id":490192,"date":"2026-06-09T06:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/490192\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T06:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:51:08","slug":"rejected-appleby-gypsy-heritage-statue-to-tour-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/490192\/","title":{"rendered":"Rejected Appleby Gypsy heritage statue to tour Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Lib-Dem authority declined to address Bowers&#8217; comments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Its original planning decision said the proposed statue would &#8220;undermine the inclusive and neutral amenity value of a well-used public space&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;While the cultural intention of the proposal is fully acknowledged and respected, no compelling justification has been provided for locating the sculpture in this specific, highly sensitive position,&#8221; it said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It also said the sculpture would be best suited to a different area where it would not result &#8220;in such harm&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The public benefit is not sufficient to outweigh the identified heritage impact,&#8221; it added. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Days after the rejection, Bowers resubmitted the application for land at Salt Tip Corner, off Roman Road. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said the council told him it owned this land, but when he put the plans forward the authority told him it belonged to a different organisation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bowers said he felt the council had &#8220;messed him around&#8221; and he withdrew the application.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said: &#8220;To define an artistic act as being damaging to the heritage of the area is factually wrong &#8211; we are part of the heritage of the area.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said he still had hopes for the sculpture to be placed in Appleby at some stage and hoped to find a private land owner willing to host it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;By embracing diversity we become stronger and richer for it and the offer [to Appleby] remains,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lib-Dem authority declined to address Bowers&#8217; comments. Its original planning decision said the proposed statue would &#8220;undermine&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-490192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}