The post you are reporting:
Jan, no current member of the Town Team has dished out any criticism on this thread.
When the TT decided to do the paintings scheme, holding a competition was discussed and the idea was broached with a number of arty type Dover organisations, but didn't get much traction, so rather than leave the hoardings as a blank canvass for street 'artists' to decorate (or deface depending on your viewpoint) it was decided that young and old could make their creations during the Dover Street Art Festival and that the creations would then be put up on the hoardings which Town Team had recently repainted.
There was a press release done when the paintings were put up, which said that many of them had been made by local youngsters and, as can be seen on the boards, quite a few of the young people initialed their work. The level of coverage that the initiative achieved in the local press was disappointing, but not surprising as the initiative was neither bad news or highly controversial.
The key aim was to actually do something and create a piece of work rather than talk about doing something and wait. The TT has a small budget, but a considerable body of work to achieve, and this was something which could be achieved with little outlay, but which would add something, discourage vandalism (which would make a difficult derelict site even worse) and involve at least some of our young people in improving the environment of an area of their town which may remain a derelict/building site for some time still to come.
It is sad that the Blue Bird Market comes in for stinging and undeserved criticism because it is a primary initiative which is still ongoing and now approaching its third winter season. It may not be a large market at the moment, but it is still going and all the Continental stalls will be back for a week in September.