Leon Dinosaur - Presentation to Bletchley & Fenny Stratford Town Council

I could never have believed the strength of public opinion that has gathered around Leon Dinosaur  and its demise at the hands of Bletchley & Fenny Stratford Town Council. The council has behaved with disrespect and issued fale information. However, it has offered an olive branch hoping to bring about a happy and positive solution. Ahead of an inital meeting at the end of the month I have prepared extensive notes. I would like here now to share some of these words.

THE ORIGINAL IDEA AND HOW IT DEVELOPED:

I served as head of year under two headmasters at Leon School, David Bradshaw and Bruce Abbott. Both were more than headmasters, they loved their schools and wanted only the very best for their pupils. You would have to go a long way to find their like within today’s national education system. Bruce Abbott was great at coming up with ideas and brilliant at dedication.

He came into my office one day and said he wanted a piece of artwork at the bottom of the school field which would be the first thing people saw from the train heading from London into the New City of Milton Keynes. It would raise the profile of the school and become an iconic statue thousands would associate with the school and the New City of Milton Keynes. He would organise the funding and I was to be the project co-ordinator with the students in my year group actually building what would become a Milton Keynes legend for years to come.

His first thinking was to have a series of giant Easter Island heads all the way across the bottom of the school field. He was the boss but I set about trying to persuade him his idea was an ambition a little bit too far.

The concrete cows had quickly become a Milton Keynes legend after BBC DJ and presenter Noel Edmunds kept joking about then. At Peartree Bridge there was the dinosaur created by

community artist Bill Billings which was a celebrated feature and could be viewed while driving along Marlborough Street.

The project needed Bill Billings and we needed something taller than a concrete cow or a  replica of the Peartree Bridge Dinosaur if it were to be seen by passengers entering Milton Keynes by train.

I spoke with Bill Billings and came up with the idea of a different species of dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus Rex. That would be big enough to be seen from the train.

I convinced Bruce Abbott that a single giant statue was the way forward.

This is a comment posted by a supporter who signed our current on-line petition:

I remember seeing it from the train before the trees hid it and knew I was almost home, I would like it to be: A restored and B restored to its original location where it was safer than where it is now.

Headmaster Bruce Abbott’s ambition happened. It COULD be seen form the train and it was the first thing passengers saw when entering the New City. It was intended to be a long-term art installation and the comments made by Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council are completely false and untrue !

There is a Freedom of Information Request pending seeking to find out who made such a statement and under what authority from Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council such was placed into the public domain. Those behind this misleading and false statement have to be called to account.

Placing this statement into the public domain suggested Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council does not know what it is talking about !

MAKING THINGS HAPPEN:

As project co-ordinator the very first thing I had to do was to obtain planning permission for the art statue which would become to be known as LEON DINOSAUR to be built. This was a somewhat complex procedure, agreement had to be obtained from local residents. While it was not an easy process those to whom it had to be submitted were helpful and permission was granted.

Presumably similar planning permission had to be obtained when Leon Dinosaur was moved to its present location on Windemere Drive and such had to have been obtained by the new owners, Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council. This must be within its records and so when the council tried to claim it did not own Leon Dinosaur no proper search of such records was undertaken. Alternatively did Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council step aside from making a planning application ?

So we had planning permission, Headmaster Bruce Abbott organised the finances and I engaged Community Artist Bill Billings. The Leon School teenagers were excited big time about being part of the construction.

The excitement continued throughout but to say this was an easy project would be completely untrue. My role became something of a peacemaker. Keeping peace between Bill and the school’s caretaking team. Keeping peace between the teaching staff and students being granted time off lessons in order to work on the dinosaur’s construction.

Students put together a time capsule which Bill Billings placed within the body of the dinosaur, it contained bits and pieces reflecting life in the 1990’s.

When the dinosaur was finished it was finished, end of. There was no official celebration which I now regret organising. I also deeply regret not having a plaque celebrating those who were involved in the project: Headmaster Bruce Abbott, Community Artist Bill Billings and all those wonderful students from Leon School who gave Milton Keynes the dinosaur.

I tried to call the giant statue Leonasaurus Rex but that did not catch on. It became known as Leon Dinosaur and by that name it is still known today.

Today, setting aside the neglect of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council which is responsible for its sad present state, Leon Dinosaur is more than the iron structure and the concrete plaster on its surface, it is more than the time capsule within its stomach, it is full of spirit placed there by those special teenagers without whose efforts Bill could not have brought to reality Bruce’s idea. It was and it still is a part of Leon School.

Thank you all.

 

Tomorrow I will share how Leon Dinosaur fell into its pressent condition.