Madam,

Local feeling is against the proposed erection of a large metal sculpture of a tree by the submerged forest on the beach between Borth and Ynyslas.

Borth Community Council opposed it; Ceredigion County Council rejected it. Surely that should be the end of the matter? But no: the artist Robert Davies has appealed against the rejection.

The fate of the landscape will be determined by an inspector from the Welsh government.

So the arguments have to be resuscitated.

Good points have been made about the sculpture being a safety hazard, about its maintenance etc, to which Mr Davies’s answers have appeared unconvincing to many people.

How the sculpture could boost the local economy without creating a car parking crisis and causing dangerous parking beside the road through the golf course I do not know.

The one good effect of all this has been the sense of solidarity in deep appreciation of the submerged forest and this stretch of beach as it is. Much heartfelt, sensitive feeling has been expressed.

Of course we know that the site is not completely unaltered by humankind. It just is the case that many of us do feel a sensitive connection with nature there. The groynes do not distract, as an ostentatious ‘iconic’ sculpture is clearly intended to.

In a nutshell, the deep beauty and symbolic significance of the submerged forest is here now, for everyone, for free. It does not need to be appropriated by one man, to treat as his work of conceptual art, to be deeply appreciated. The intrusion of one man’s artistic response to the submerged forest is a detrimental imposition upon everyone else’s experience of this beautiful site.

You can find more information, discussion and expressions of feeling on the ‘Tree Coeden A Dicussion In Borth’ Facebook page. There you will find details of how to urge the Planning Inspectorate to reject the appeal. This needs to be done by 26 April.

Yours etc,

Rychard Carrington, Cae Gwylan, Borth.

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