Muted farewell meets end of silent TV screen

IT may have divided its viewers and caused political sparks, but Hull’s big screen still managed to provide a bit of entertainment as it was being dismantled yesterday.

The sight of the six-ton structure being lowered from its lofty perch in Hull’s Queen Victoria Square drew the kind of audience its critics say was all too common – a small huddle of bemused shoppers supplemented by the occasional glance from passers-by.

But even the most fleet-footed visitor to the city centre had a view on one of the most controversial Hull Council projects of the last 10 years.

“Are they getting a bigger one?”, and “Have you got a licence?”, were just two of the comments directed at the council contractors carefully bringing the screen back down to earth with the aid of a crane.

And then like it never happened, it was whisked away to a council storage unit in East Hull where it will be held indefinitely until a buyer can be found. It was all so different when the 24 sq metre-screen was switched on to a fanfare of publicity in August 2004, just in time for the Athens Olympics, one of the major events it was set up to broadcast.

Sitting at the launch on an outsized sofa with an outsized teapot and cups, all of which were nearly dwarfed by a massive remote control, were BBC Look North presenter Peter Levy and the then city council leader Colin Inglis.

But somehow it never quite lived up to the billing.

The screen’s arrival in the city sparked a political storm after it emerged only two Labour councillors – Dave Gemmell and Colin Inglis – formally agreed to the deal, which cost the authority 675,000.

Few of the onlookers were sorry to see it go when the plug was finally pulled yesterday.

One woman said: “Now that it’s there they should be looking for alternative sources of funding to keep it going. There is another Olympics and a World Cup coming up so it’s the wrong time to take it down.

“Otherwise it’s a disgraceful waste of public money; 675,000 is a lot to us, to people in Hull.”

Beth Mars, 19, of Dent Road, Hull, said: “I think it was a waste of money. They should have spent it fixing potholes in the roads.”

Ronald Tomlinson, of Victoria Dock, thought the screen had served a purpose but was in the wrong place.

The 74-year-old said: “It was good for sporting events, a lot of people used to come and sit and watch the ballet.

“I think it was in the wrong position and should have been in Queens Gardens.

“I’m pleased to see it go from here but I think it should be in Queens Gardens.”

The council, which switched to Liberal Democrat control in May 2006, said it could no longer afford the running costs.

It switched off the screen in December when a partnership deal with the BBC, which supplied most of the content, and the maintenance contract with electrical giant Philips both ended.

The council said it would have cost up to 250,000 over the next three to five years to continue with the project. Council leader Coun Carl Minns said: “In the current economic climate where money is going to be tight, that’s not a prudent use of taxpayers’ money.

“We wouldn’t have spent three-quarters of a million on it in the first place. I’m not going to compound that error by spending more taxpayers’ money on it.”

So the screen may be gone but the row about it rumbles on.

Coun Inglis fought back by letter and wrote: “So, the saga of the Big Screen is over...almost. We can all heave a huge sigh of relief!

“It maybe tells you all you need to know about me, impulsive, arrogant, determined to get things done, often regardless of cost, bit of a Napoleon complex maybe (he was taller than people generally think), always imagine I'm right and slow to apologise if I'm not, classic autocrat.

“It also, however, tells you all you need to know about the Liberal Democrats in power.

“They campaigned relentlessly to have the thing removed, hundreds of thousands of Focus leaflet headlines and then took nearly four years to actually do it, twice as long as I had to lead the council.”

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