Lotto UK deny Scottish artwork funding

Battle of Stirling Bridge.

An art gallery’s bid for lottery funding in order to create a public artwork at the site of one of Scotland’s most famous victories over England has been rejected, reports the BBC.

The Guardians of Scotland Trust were hoping to celebrate William Wallace’s victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 with a piece of public artwork.

This battle was famously portrayed by Mel Gibson in Bravehart.

The art organisation, Creative Scotland, had vowed to give £137,000 to the project if the funding had been matched by the lottery.

However, the Lotto UK branch that looks after Scottish interests refused to take part over concerns about the partnership funding.

There are concerns that if they fail to raise £72,000 by August 23, then the project will collapse.

The decision not to grant lottery funding was criticised by renowned historian Sir Tom Devine.

He said: “The Battle of Stirling Bridge is second in importance only to Bannockburn in the Wars of Independence.

“It is imperative that the location should therefore be marked in a suitable fashion.”

A boycott of the National Lottery has been proposed by the Guardians of Scotland Trust, which is made up of historians and politicians from a number of parties. Instead, they call on people to donate £4 to the scheme.

A spokesman for the group, John Robertson, said: “At the moment, there is nothing at the north side of Stirling Bridge to mark this important historical event. Tourists come looking for information to this site on the outskirts of Stirling and are met with a blank canvas.

“We believe this project has been discriminated against in the lead up to the referendum. This is a leading heritage initiative and not a political project.

“In keeping with the Trust’s aims, it has cross-party support. This project aims to present the first physical commemoration to Andrew de Moray anywhere in the world.”

The Scottish branch of Lotto who are in charge of funding, said it was “concerned about the level of confirmed partrnership funding” for the Stirling project.

A spokeswoman for the organisation said: “We realise this is disappointing news for everyone involved with the project. HLF’s assessment of this application took place in the usual way. We are continuing to receive more applications than can be supported.

“Whilst we recognise the importance of the heritage that the Guardians of Scotland project plans to explore, we did have concerns about the level of confirmed partnership funding.

“There were also a number of other applications which offered better value for money in a highly competitive round of decision-making.”