UGLY FACE OF THE FUTURE

04 June 2005

Swansea Council's decision to preserve the old Slip Bridge for posterity by siting it on the promenade opposite St Helen's is a prime example of wistful nostalgia being allowed to degenerate into mawkish sentimentality.

A configuration of iron girders resembling a pair of gigantic coat hangers can only detract from the visual splendour of the coastline. Transplanted onto the scenic vistas of Swansea Bay, it will have all the incongruity of a clapped out old banger abandoned in the centre of a rose garden.

The hallmark of any civic amenity lies in its practical usefulness, its value as an historical artefact or in it being a structure of architectural merit, and this ugly, meccano-like construction has none of these qualities.

While it might for older citizens evoke memories of a calmer past when there was more respect for authority and more clearly defined roles for men and women, the mind is curiously selective and may blank out the realities of 50 years ago when lack of opportunity and social deprivation were a fact of life for many.

Unsightly and superfluous, this blast from the past will be a safety hazard for those irresponsible urchins the city seems to breed in such numbers and who have such a cavalier disregard for their own safety.

The preservation of the Swansea foreshore is more important than the embalming in nostalgia of an old iron bridge of First World War vintage, while an obsession with the mundane objects of the past is not always healthy.

Councillors should concentrate their financial resources on projects of more immediate relevance and undertakings of greater vision.

Stuart Walters
Llwyn Carw
Morriston