Madam,

Strength of feeling is high in Borth concerning the planned erection of a large metal sculpture of a tree on the beach in the area of the submerged forest towards Ynyslas.

While the Community Council opposed the scheme by a majority of 7-2, I would estimate that the majority of the population overall is actually larger than that.

The planning officers’ meeting at the site on Friday, 1 December was attended by about 45 opponents of the scheme, nearly all from Borth or Ynyslas. About 15 turned up to support the scheme, most of whom were not from the village. The tree’s opponents were respectfully quiet, yet intense concern was evident. People aren’t against the sculpture, just against its proposed position.

Surely the strength of feeling derives from a deep and sensitive appreciation of the landscape as it is. I walk through this area most days: the impression of beauty and expanse, combined with the connection to the ancient past that the submerged forest displays, evokes for me a sense of eternal natural forces, a feeling that could be described as spiritual. Such feelings are among the most sensitive and precious that people have. A metal sculpture could only abuse these feelings by violating the landscape that inspires them.

Mr Davies, the sculptor, says that he is pleased that the proposal is generating ‘debate’. But the feelings which the landscape currently inspires are far more valuable than debate. The sculpture is designed to demand attention. We will be unable to meditate upon the landscape without regard to Mr Davies’s art. One man’s response to a landscape will impose itself between the landscape and our personal responses to it. We are not empty-headed, unenlightened masses needing the superior sensibility of an artist to sensitise, stimulate or educate us. We do not need a metal tree, in this particular position, to somehow raise our awareness of climate change.

One of the pro-tree speakers at the planning meeting (not a Borth resident) claimed that the village would be proud of the sculpture; that it would ‘put Borth on the map’. What map? Borth is already on our maps, close to our hearts. We are indeed a proud community, proud of the natural beauty of our environment, and proud of what we create together as a community. We will not be proud of what one artist imposes on us.

Will the sculpture be a monument to how beautiful the landscape was before it was spoilt by the sculpture, or will it be just a monument to itself?

Yours etc,

Dr Rychard Carrington, Cae Gwylan, Borth.

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