Campaigners call on The Swarm to be saved after it was earmarked for demolition

The North East artist behind The Swarm is campaigning for the iconic sculpture to be saved.

Transcript

00:00 So my name's William Pym, I'm the artist who designed the swarm sculpture that you see behind you.

00:05 At the time I was working in metal, creating sculptures across the northeast that commemorated

00:16 important changes in the landscape and I think there's none more important than the change

00:20 here from the Monkton Coatworks into a fantastic woodland and business park and I was very proud

00:27 to be part of the team that designed the sculpture. Now it has been sort of earmarked for

00:32 demolition, obviously subject to planning permission, how did you feel when you found out

00:37 about that? Well I was quite shocked actually because I mean in a sense a you know sculpture

00:44 is part of the community and therefore to hear about it second hand through a newspaper article

00:50 and thank you very much for covering this it seems like not given the respect not just to myself but

00:57 to the community that supported this. There were something like 22 local organizations and community

01:03 groups that led the project. I worked with schools and local people of all sorts and so it seems

01:12 strange that to be hidden in a planning permission with no information attached, no reason given on

01:19 the planning permission. Yeah it feels like this is being done a little bit through the back door

01:24 and frankly I think local people would like to know a lot more about why this decision is being

01:29 made. Now obviously it is subject to planning permission that could be removed and what

01:34 would your message be to South Tyneside Council? Well my message to South Tyneside was just check,

01:39 check what people really think about this, check that they know their history. The campaigning say

01:44 of really famous local councillor and chair of the Tyne and Wear council Jenny Sheeran who

01:52 campaigned for years she was given a blue plaque just last year. Now she was part of that steering

01:56 committee. Now I don't know what she would think about it but I think the council should think

02:01 really carefully what do local people think and support that as much as the issues to do with

02:08 maintenance or whatever. I'm quite upset that it's going to go if it does because he worked for

02:15 swan hunters and he was one of the last apprentices that actually worked on anything and out of the

02:21 college so him and a lot of his colleagues are very very upset about it really and he would be

02:28 here today if he wasn't at work. The other thing is for it to go would be such a disaster because

02:38 so many people know of it they call it, they don't all call it the swarm there's different

02:44 but people do come past bring their families. My son was here on Monday with his family

02:50 and it is it is something that we are very proud of and disappointed that it's come to this.

02:58 This is majestic if you look at it it has a swarm of bees representative of industry and the fact

03:06 that Ben and other lads were the some of the last apprentices on the Tyne from swan hunters

03:13 this is vital that we preserve this not for what was but what can be again when when people combine

03:21 and the symbolism is unmistakable. It's close to my heart because as a 14 year old I used to send

03:28 my pocket money to shipbuilders and it saved a shipyard and thousands literally thousands of

03:34 jobs so while we're mindful of costs and maintenance and money is very very tight but this

03:42 this is majestic this points to the sky like the former co-works Flay used to guiding people home

03:50 after working away long journeys it was one of the iconic things that guided people back to this part

03:56 of South Tyne side and so it represents that torch and that hope and those skills that live on.