Talk:Iconic London mural could be restored

Article is not out of date
I dispute the article being out of date. It is an emerging story that has only been covered in a quarterly community paper and then a local weekly paper. The story relates to a proposal to restore a wall mural and public meeting to endorse or object to the proposal. The site of the mural is on one of London's main thoroughfares yet the story has not been covered in any of London's main dailies. The story could well be picked up by one of these papers in the next 48 hours.

Stories like these often are brought to light by community papers and newsletters, then are picked up by a local weekly before attracting the attention of mainstream press. This often takes time, sometimes weeks or months. For example, compare this story [http://news.fitzrovia.org.uk/2010/08/12/historic-london-districts-re-branded-midtown/ Historic London districts re-branded Midtown. Or have they?] by the community newspaper Fitzrovia News published 12 August and the same story Historic London districts 'rebranded' Midtown on the BBC News site published more than four weeks later on 17 September.

Suggestion
I suggest that you could do some original reporting or a broadcast report to make this article up-to-date. -- Rayboy8 ( my talk ) ( my contributions ) 14:04, 19 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for this. That's a very good idea. I can phone one of the people involved in the project through a contact of mine and do a brief interview and see if I can get some info that was not picked up in the other news sources. I suppose I just list that as an "original reporting" source along with the other sources like "interview with so and so..."

Original reporting notes
Notes taken during phone interview at 7:30.pm BST London, UK

Need to act quickly

sense of urgency because of its deteriorating

the graffiti is multiplying

Camden council said the will do a condition survey

We need partners to bid for money

So many council depts that don’t speak to each other open spaces, arts and housing, parks and gardens four departments.

economic climate not good

I fear that if we don’t so some thing the council will consider a private commercial scheme on the site,

On Sunday evening, I spoke to Peter Whyatt who is jointly leading the project to restore the mural. He told me he had number of concerns about the possible success of the project.

“There are a great number of problems with getting this project off the ground and we also need to act pretty quickly for a number of reasons.

“Firstly the mural is in a terrible state and deteriorating quickly. There is more graffiti being daubed on the site every month because one bit of graffiti attracts another bit. We really need to start the work in the next 12 months because going through another winter with the condition of the wall will causes more problems and inevitably more expense. We want to keep as much original artwork on the site as possible to keep the costs down. This is a big mural and it will be expensive to restore.

“And that brings me to my second concern: cost. If we don’t get other community organisations on board to bid for money for this with us and to involve their beneficiaries and volunteers, it will be very difficult to secure the money needed. Money is very tight at the moment because to the current financial climate. We need to get support at this meeting on Tuesday and some firm commitments form people and organisations to get involved.

“Lastly there is a danger of a commercial development on the site. A public-private partnership to create a new art feature. Because of the existing mural’s subject matter – it mocks property speculators, and land developers, etc – a commercial scheme probably backed by a property developer would not want to restore the mural’s original message. They’d want some “good news” scheme, some greenwash idea that paints them in a positive light.

“However, despite these problems, Camden Council have offered to do a condition survey on the mural. This will save us a lot of money. But having said that there are five council departments to deal with to get permission for this restoration work, and they don’t always talk to each other.

“But if the public and local voluntary organisations show their support, we can make it happen.

Interview
Please identify the organization that Mr Whyatt represents. --InfantGorilla (talk) 19:52, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
 * [[Image:Yes check.svg|20px]] Resolved. . I found it. --InfantGorilla (talk) 20:15, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Copyright material
The Fitzrovia News is published under a non-commercial Creative Commons License. Wikinews is non-commercial and the material can be re-used. See the badge at the bottom right hand side of the Fitzrovia News page http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ --Thegiantrodent (talk) 20:24, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

On second thoughts, there could be a license clash. Not sure about this. Too complicated to wonder about. I'll do a re-write

Re-write done. Just waiting for a review--Thegiantrodent (talk) 23:20, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Review needed
All outstanding issues have been addressed. Review now needed.--Thegiantrodent (talk) 09:20, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks to everyone who edited, reviewed and made suggestions to get this story published. Much appreciated --Thegiantrodent (talk) 23:02, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Correction
I was contacted by Peter Whyatt one of the organisers of the project and he wished to point out the project is not just about the mural but also wider plans to promote awareness of heritage and conservation in an area of London under threat from commercial development. In fact the bulk of the project is about the heritage and conservation and the mural is just one part of it, and the most visible because of its situation. The actual name of the project is the Fitzrovia Heritage and Mural Project and this should be made clear in the reporting. He has also pointed out that there is a website where the public can comment on the plans and kept up to date on the proposals. I have submitted some corrections to the text of the article to reflect this.