In July Cllr John Todd sends Abundance an email saying “Congratulations.” Abundance is confused and has no idea what he’s talking about.
Cllr Todd explains that Abundance has been awarded S106 funding to create the mural. The Planning Advisory Service of the Local Government Association explains that “Planning obligations under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended), commonly known as S106 agreements, are a mechanism which make a development proposal acceptable in planning terms, that would not otherwise be acceptable. They are focused on site specific mitigation of the impact of development”.
Kieran Taylor, Principal Transport Planner for London Borough of Hounslow confirms that Abundance has been awarded an astonishing £21,141, a very precise yet somehow arbitrary sum that bears little relation to the amount we requested. We are amazed and a bit confused.
We try to remember what we offered to do, and we try to find our old partners at Transport for London to revive the project. In August we make contact with Ann Gavaghan who works for the Design and Communities team of Transport for London. We meet and she is enthusiastic about our project, and so we are enthusiastic about her.
In September we hit a slight hiccup, when Hounslow checks in its pockets and finds that it doesn’t actually have the money it promised us. Abundance responds that this is “incomprehensible and unacceptable”. This is the first use of the word “oops!” in anger during this project (as in “should we be telling the public that although the council promised £21k – oops – they no longer have it?”). Hounslow agrees it has made an error and reconfirms the funding.
Abundance begins to work on new designs and to draw up a budget. The original proposal was for one side of the road under the arches, the eastern side behind the bus stop. In the intervening years, however, the other side has sat empty and revolting, with the old advertising hoardings removed. As the original funding request was for £12,000 and the S106 allocated is for £21,000 (did someone make a helpful typing mistake at Hounslow?), Abundance decides to be ambitious and deal with both sides of the road.
