Upset over mural

A MURAL painted on a wall at Mayfield Primary School has met with disapproval from conservationists.

Children at the school spent weeks creating a global scene on one of three walls in the playground. The mural features a jungle scene, a seascape, a countryside scene including a castle and tank and a goal containing a goalkeeper.

However, members of the village's conservation society have branded the creation 'inappropriate for a rural setting' and added that the wall should have remained untouched as parts of it were over 100 years old.

Margaret Brown, of the Mayfield and Five Ashes Society, said: 'We felt it more suitable to a more urban environment than a rural one.

'I saw the mural when I went into the school with my granddaughter and personally I didn't like it. I preferred the playground in one piece.

'The walls appeared quite mellow before. It's a very urban concept. It's inappropriate in a rural setting.

'It's not just a matter of taste. It's a conservation area. Unfortunately the school is not a listed building. But once you have painted a wall it needs constant maintenance and it does involve ongoing painting.

'They (the school) felt it would brighten the surroundings for the children. But that's not entirely the point, is it? Parts of that wall would have been quite old well over 100 years old.

At a meeting of the parish council on Monday Cllr Mary Faulkner said: 'This business of painting playground walls comes from urban schools.

It's totally unnecessary in a beautiful environment like Mayfield, where there are fields and trees all around. I find it incomprehensible that they want to waste money painting over bricks.'

However, Sian Collison, a teacher at the school, said the mural was part of a 'healthy schools initiative' to improve the environment for the children.

She said: 'We initially had a drive to get a shed painted in the playground. We then sent a questionnaire to all the children and parents to ask them what improvements they would like to see at the school.

'The overwhelming response was how boring an environment the playground was. It was like a car park with three walls.'

She added: 'We recognise that the school is in a beautiful environment. But the children needed something stimulating.

'All the children painted a little bit of the wall. It is their design; we wanted them to have ownership of it.'

She said that members of the community would be invited to discuss the mural with the school and added that any future murals on the other two walls could be painted on a board placed over the wall.

Bob Tidy, East Sussex County Councillor for Mayfield, said: 'I think it's time to support what they are trying to do. They have support of the parents governors and children. I don't think it will do Mayfield a great deal of harm.'