Friargate development

Update on pixrobin's photos

Back in post number one of this topic, my late wife asked a question. She would have been thrilled at my post today:- This afternoon I was privileged to witness the first step in the process of getting Trigger (the horse from the Central Six junction of the ring road) restored and back on public display. Trigger was created by local artist; Simon Evans - who sadly has since passed away. Simon studied locally in Coventry and this was his legacy to the city. Trigger had been removed from the J6 island prior at the start of the Friargate development just over three years ago and has sat in a box, in storage, ever since. It was first thought that Trigger would never see the light of day again after extensive corrosion was found in Triggers body - but thanks to the original sculptor's best friend; Andy Langley (who is also a local artist and metal fabricator) offering to rebuild him whilst donating all labour free-of-charge, Trigger will now be fully restored and hopefully back on public display within a couple of months. Following a recent public request to "Find Trigger", Vic Minnett, presenter of the mid-morning show on BBC-CW was contacted and her team discovered, by pure coincidence, it had been arranged for Trigger to be transported just yesterday (27th June) from its City Council storage facility to a workshop in a remote part of the Warwickshire countryside - and today was the great "opening of the box". We stood waiting for the crew to assemble and a large fork-lift truck to be readied. A tense few moments followed which weren't helped by someone's idea of a joke fixing a "This Way Up" sign UPSIDE DOWN to the side of the box. Screws were hurriedly removed, crow-bars wielded, and with the help of the fork-lift the whole side of the box lowered slowly to the ground. I must admit I had a nervous fear that the box might be empty! Thankfully my fears were quickly allayed. The first thing that struck me was his (its) shear size. Far bigger than I ever imagined - a huge rearing stallion, which seemed to be almost fighting against its imprisonment in the box. This will be no small job, as large pieces of the structure will need to be cut away, new parts fabricated using the old pieces as templates, then rebuilt almost from the ground up. A new removable panel will need to be added to facilitate the addition of extra internal strengthening before finally being sent off to the painters for any old black paint (a previous attempt at covering up the signs of corrosion that was taking hold) to be removed, then new multi-coat protection added. Finally, once all this has been achieved, it will then be returned to public display. The original intention was for it to stand on Greyfriars Green, now with a recommendation to be placed on some sort of high plinth so as to deter (and hopefully prevent) the climbers that we sometimes see on the Godiva statue in Broadgate. I understand planning permission has yet to be approved although I sincerely trust that after all this effort, that will simply be a formality and Trigger will be back on outside display for the public to enjoy.

Thanks for that comprehensive - and encouraging - report, Tony

Flash Crossing

£21k!!!! - I could've done that for at least half with a stencil and a spray can. Bonkers.

Telegraph article under the headline "Multi-million-pound taxpayer bail out for flagship Coventry business district development"

The city has struggled to attract funding in the past and had to kick start development itself, this is hardly new. The council had to kick start development of the Precinct as there was little commercial interest. It's a loan, anyway. Given the government are reducing money that is given to authorities, finding ways to invest reserves and generate income is about the only way forward. It's pretty important that we have a stab at Friargate. These things aren't quick. Look at how long Birmingham took to get redeveloped!

TonyS I'm afraid I'm going to upset the apple cart here, but I have to. Do you really like that tin-can rubbish that you call 'Trigger' - childish. Horses were once our great and noble friends, gentle giants, now we ridicule them. Yeh I know I'm old and out of date but it hurts me to see my once proud city down to this level. I quit.

Kaga, you are fully entitled to your own opinion, but it really hurts me for lots of reasons to hear you say that. I'm just going to leave it there.

For anyone who may be interested, "Trigger" (the black horse that used to stand near J6 of the Ring Road) is being returned to public display and will be unveiled on Greyfriars Green next Wednesday, 7th February at 1:00pm. Everyone welcome!

Great news Tony

I am pleased about that too Tony. I have seen it shown on the forum and I love it.

He's back! A lot of coverage on CWR about him today. Tony, was that a mention about you I caught the end of this evening on the Radio?!

Hi Neil, yes, that would have been me! And I had the pleasure of meeting "Old Lincolnian" at the unveiling too. And here he is.... (That's "Trigger" not Old Lincolnian!!) PS, Neil, it hasn't been CWR for 13 years! It's now BBC-CW

Nice one Tony. I can never understand why it's Cov and Warwicks anyway when we all know we're still in Warwickshire