Is £300K art budget for Broughty Ferry cycle route ‘excessive’?

Funding for art along Broughty Ferry to Monifieth cycle route is more than double the money spent on city's waterfront whale statue.

By Joanna Bremner

February 9 2023, 6:00am

The overall art and placemaking budget for the active travel route is £300,000 - this is more than twice the cost of Dundee's waterfront whale. Image: Joanna Bremner/DC Thomson

The £300,000 cost for art and placemaking at the Broughty Ferry cycle lane has been branded “excessive” by a local resident.

The overall art and placemaking budget for the active travel route is £300,000.

Tracy McLean, 61, lives in Broughty Ferry. She offered her thoughts on the planned commissions.

“I think it’s an excessive cost,” she said.

“They’ve spent a lot of money on this path as it is.

“You don’t need art along here, the view is beautiful enough.”

The budget for art and placemaking along the route is more than twice the cost of Dundee’s waterfront whale, which cost the council £134,750.

This updated Broughty Ferry to Monifieth route is part of a wider £11 million revamp scheme.

Ruaridh Johnson at the Broughty Ferry-Monifieth active travel route. Image: Joanna Bremner/DC Thomson.

Local student Ruaridh Johnson, 19, said he “likes” the idea.

“I think that would be nice to see when you’re cycling along,” he said, “but it is quite a lot of money, isn’t it?”

So far, Dundee councillors have commissioned £80,000 worth of public art for the route.

The council is now looking for more “suitably experienced artists” to submit their proposals for two sculptures at either end of the route.

Charity Sustrans said the aim of placemaking is to “create a unique sense of place and reflect local community identity.”

The deadline for artists to apply is Tuesday February 21, according to a post on public procurement website Public Contracts Scotland.

A spokesperson for Dundee City Council said the first five artworks are progressing and will be added once the route is finished.

Broughty Ferry cycle route art should help ‘to develop a sense of place’

He added: “While the active travel route serves a very real, practical purpose that is no reason why it should be purely functional.

“Public art, often created specifically for its location adds to the environment and helps to develop a sense of place.”

Dundee Council received funding from Sustrans for the project. A condition of this funding was that the project should make improvements to placemaking as well as active travel.

A spokesperson for charity, Sustrans, added: “Placemaking has an important and evidenced role to play in creating attractive, enjoyable and inclusive spaces within our communities and encouraging more people to walk, wheel and cycle.