Heritage buildings in Olympic spotlight
By Emma Brennan
Thursday, February 2, 2012
8:41 AM
PROMINENT buildings in Sudbury could be lit up with the Olympic colours as part of the town’s celebrations for the event.
At a leisure and environment meeting on Tuesday, councillors discussed the possibility of shining lights in the blue, yellow, orange, green, and pink colours of the London 2012 Games on to landmark buildings, to coincide with Sudbury’s own weekend of themed events.
Buildings the council would like to put in the Olympic spotlight include St Peter’s Church, the Town Hall, the old Corn Exchange building, which now houses the library, and St Gregory’s Church. Councillors will also consider asking the county highways department if they can light up Ballingdon Bridge, which is at a key entrance point to the town.
Mayor Tony Platt welcomed the idea of highlighting the town’s historic buildings and monuments in glorious technicolor. He said it would provide an ideal opportunity to “celebrate Suffolk’s rich heritage and the games, at the same time”.
Town clerk Sue Brotherwood said she would look into the cost of the lighting proposal. But, as many of the buildings were already lit, the cost of adding coloured gels to lights would be minimal. The council already pays for closed churchyard lighting.
Nearly 20 churches across Suffolk have signed up to change the colour of their floodlights to reflect the London 2012 Games, as part of the Suffolk Shines initiative. The joint project between the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, and Suffolk County Council is also being supported by the Churches Conservation Trust. It invites historic churches with existing floodlights to apply lighting gels to temporarily change the colour of their buildings at night, into the London 2012 colours.
St Mary’s at Pakenham, near Bury St Edmunds, was the first to trial the coloured lights in the build up to the games.
Adam Baker, Suffolk Project Manager for the London 2012 Games, said: “The idea is that the churches will shine like beacons across the county to show that Suffolk is getting behind the games. At the moment, it is just churches involved, but if towns and villages would like to highlight other non-commercial buildings in the same way, we would love them to join in.”
For Sudbury’s Olympic celebrations from June 22 to 25, the council will welcome dignitaries from its twin towns of Hoxter in Germany, Clermont in France and Fredensborg in Denmark, for a series of celebratory events and sporting challenges.
The full council will have to decide if the visitors get to see the town’s buildings lit in colour.
