Paint on station's £225K artwork is already peeling

Paint has already started to peel off a £225,000 Nigerian-style artwork designed to welcome passengers to a city railway station.

Walk With Your Dreams by artist Yinka Ilori was only unveiled in October in Station Square, Milton Keynes.

"It has changed the way people view our city, but unfortunately we were given a ten-year guarantee on the artwork and it has not lived up to that," said Shanika Mahendran, cabinet member for planning on the Labour-led city council.

Shazna Muzammil, leader of the Conservative opposition, said: "What did they think would happen when residents started using this space, what was the maintenance plan?" The contractor has been approached for comment.

The artwork is designed to direct pedestrians towards two underpasses that lead from the station to the city centre, but there are worries the peeling surface could be a slip hazard.

It was commissioned by the Milton Keynes Development Partnership (MKDP) and the city council.

MKDP said repairs have already been scheduled. It confirmed it had withheld payment from the contractor, the London Mural Company.

Conservatives have questioned the original project's value after a Freedom of Information request revealed it had cost £225,000 out of a total £2.19m for the regeneration of Station Square.

Muzammil added: "All the paint is peeling and this is going into our drains as well, so it looks not very pleasant.

"Is it really bringing value for our residents here in Milton Keynes?"

She added: "You cannot be doing projects like this just because you have some money in the pot for art.

"There is this sense of spending money without a long-term plan."

But Labour's Shanika Mahendran said: "The company that did this have done this in numerous other places and that's why it was a trusted contractor to go out to but unfortunately it has just fallen short of those standards on this occasion."

She added: "We would like them to come back and fix it as it is important to us as a city council that it looks good, so we would also like to recoup some of the costs we paid towards it."

On the ten-year guarantee, she said: "It should not be chipping in the way it is, so it should not need regular painting."

She denied claims from the Conservatives that taxpayers' money had been used to fund the original scheme.

"It does not come from taxpayer money or from the council budget and I think it is either a misunderstanding or being deceptive to claim that it is," Mahendran said.

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.