FRESH plans for a series of artworks along the River Leven in Dumbarton have been lodged with council bosses after the original proposals were slammed as “crass” by some residents.

Dunbritton Housing Association is seeking planning permission from West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) for various artworks along the new Dumbarton Harbour riverside walkway.

The association hopes to secure the green light for three metal geese sculptures, eight cast-iron paving reliefs, eight acrylic resin wall plaques, and a viewpoint sculpture.

The last of these was the subject of criticism from some residents earlier this year after a previous set of plans for the site was published.

The sculpture was to take the form of a giant oval hoop made of silver-grey Jesmonite (similar to granite), mounted on a concrete plinth.

It was to be 4.25 metres tall, 3.8m wide, and 1.2m deep, and was to feature the Dumbarton crest of a castle and elephant, and shapes of a family waving through the opening.

The plans were withdrawn in the summer with Dunbritton pledging to carry out more consultation with the public before coming back with a revised application.

In documents submitted as part of the new application, Dunbritton says that 91 per cent of respondents to a survey believed the art project reflected Dumbarton’s heritage, 94 per cent felt it would enhance the area, and 96 per cent said they would support a planning application.

However, the only public representation on the revised plans is not an expression of support but an objection.

The objection says the viewpoint sculpture “doesn’t fit in with the surrounding buildings, and you can guarantee will end up being a magnet for graffiti and will quickly look even more out of place”.

The objection is published on the WDC website under the name of Luke Gregory, who lives in nearby Cronin Street, and states that he supports “most of the planned work, just not the sculpture”. 

However, since this article was published, Mr Gregory has told the Reporter that he denies making the comments attributed to him on the council's website.

The other elements of the scheme include four seats – or ‘Cooper’s Chairs’ – made out of recycled whisky barrels, with three “angry geese” sculptures between them, and two “elephant benches”.

The proposed cast-iron paving reliefs each give a nod to the town’s industrial past, including the WW2 Sunderland ‘flying boats’ built at the Denny shipyard, the Dennystoun Forge, the Levenbank Foundry and the former Ballantine’s whisky distillery which formerly occupied the riverside site.

The viewpoint sculpture has also shrunk slightly compared to the original plans – it is now 4.25 metres wide, 3.25m high and one metre deep, and no longer has a family of a mum, dad, son and daughter waving in the central gap – a feature of the first proposal which attracted criticism for depicting “a stereotype that needs shattering” which “reflects old and inappropriate attitudes to what reflects ‘family’”.

The design, according to the application, “shows an elliptical torc with flared ends, a smooth internal surface finish, a tooled external surface finish, and incorporating the elephant and castle from Dumbarton’s coat of arms”.

A computer-generated image of the revised sculpture also features a person looking towards the artwork and the river – and in another change to the original application documents, the CGI person’s head is no longer redacted.

A torc was a symbol of power and wealth in the world of the early Britons who were Dumbarton’s first settlers and established it as the ancient capital of the North.