A high profile project to build a new national landmark at the Scottish border has been denied £1 million in funding from the country's arts funding body.
A high profile project to build a new national landmark at the Scottish border has been denied £1 million in funding from the country's arts funding body.
The Star of Caledonia project, designed by Cecil Balmond and Charles Jencks, is planned to be built near Gretna in Dumfries and Galloway.
Plans for the sculpture suggested, based on visitor figures of 70,000 a year, it could generate more than £300,000 for the region.
Studies of the project have said that could generate as much media interest as the Angel of the North in England's north east and The Kelpies in Falkirk in its first six months.
However, despite giving the project funding towards its development in 2012, Creative Scotland has now denied it a £1m grant from its capital funding programme.
The body's capital funding system works in two stages: the project was given £49,000 at a "stage one" level in September of 2012, but its "stage two" application for further money was unsuccessful, Creative Scotland has confirmed.
However it denied that its £1m funding had been "withdrawn" and that it was only agreed upon in principle.
A spokeswoman said: "The Stage Two Capital application from The Gretna Landmark Trust for the Star of Caledonia was unsuccessful."
The body does not reveal the reasons why projects are unsuccessful.
??Capital funding involves a two stage process.
"Stage 1 development funding is awarded to enable projects to develop proposals alongside an in-principle amount subject to a successful Stage Two application. "Project plans are then assessed by Creative Scotland at Stage Two and if the project is assessed as viable, the in-principle commitment outlined at Stage One will be awarded.??
UK tourism minister, Helen Grant, backed the plans for the 120ft sculpture earlier this year.
Alasdair Houston, the chairman of the Gretna Landmark Trust, has said the Star "is a timeless work, which for 365 days a year will be a bold and confident statement of Scotland's innovation and energy."
It was given planning approval last year but now it is unclear what the future of the project holds.
Last year a statement for the project said that for 2014, "there is a definite zeitgeist and securing funding now will ensure that Star of Caledonia- a public symbol of confidence in Scotland??s identity and future ?? is completed during this landmark year."
Mr Jencks, a noted created of artistic 'landforms', such as those at the Jupiter Artland site outside Edinburgh and at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, said that the work will "pull together the adjacent site, the distant hills and the Solway".
The planners of the project, The Gretna Landmark Trust, have said that of the 60% of visitors to Scotland who enter the country by road, 84% pass by Gretna.
If it is built, more than 5m vehicles will pass the site from the motorway annually and Star of Caledonia will be seen by over 10m people each year.
Dumfries and Galloway council's planning committee supported the plan and there were no public objections as a report pointed to benefits for tourism, local businesses and regeneration of the area, although the council has not given any funding to the project.
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