REVEALED: We Uncover The £4.29 MILLION Cost of Weston's Repeatedly Delayed "SEE Monster" Arts Project

 

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"Unboxed, the project in control of See Monster and funded by the government, said its exact costs will be made available to the public once the project has been completed." Charlie Williams, Weston Mercury, 24th August 2022

UPDATE (31/8/22): The House magazine has written an article about the "Carnival of Brexit - How The Government's £120m 'Festival Of Brexit' Went Rogue" and names SEE Monster as part of it. We have published a new article on this here showing the duplicity and hypocrisy of Liberal Democrat councillors taking Festival of Brexit money having openly criticised and opposed Brexit.

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Somerset Independents puts residents first. When Weston-super-Mare residents expressed their concerns about the SEE Monster project, its costs and delays, we listened. And we acted.

Local media outlets including the Weston Mercury, quoted residents who were worried about how much the delayed SEE Monster arts project was costing and why it was delayed. Residents were also worried that the project would make Weston a "laughing stock".

Residents say that other things in Weston needed fixing, including the roads and the buses but also many other things. Those are the right priorities, not an arts project, they said.

Yet Lib Dem councillors such as Mark Canniford and officers at North Somerset Council are spending council money hyping up "SEE Monster", despite:

• repeated delays
• "arts" being the wrong priorities and 
• the massive cost, which we now reveal.
  

We now reveal that after an investigation by our Leader Andrew Pope, that we know how much SEE Monster is costing... so far.

£4.29 million

... and counting.

This is based on evidence that we have seen of invoices by New Substance - who are running the project - to the funders. Funding is ultimately coming from the taxpayer and the citizens of our country. Somerset Independents stands up for taxpayers, for residents and citizens.

These invoices have been paid by the funders who are Festival 2022 Limited, a.k.a. Unboxed.

The total amount spent on "SEE Monster" may be more than this £4.29 million now. 

We have offered New Substance the right of reply, and the opportunity to correct these figures, or to give us the total budget, but have had no response at the time of publishing.

We have also asked North Somerset Council a set of questions about SEE Monster, and await answers. This includes questions on how much council money had been spent on this project.

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