Country park arts trail for City of Culture agreed

Plans to create an arts trail in a Bradford beauty spot have been given the green light.

Penistone Hill Country Park, near Haworth, will host the Wild Uplands Project from this spring.

The trail is one of several arts events being held as part of City of Culture in 2025.

It will feature works by four different artists, and will include a collection of 75 sculpted butterflies and a tower clad in sheep's wool as a nod to Bradford's industrial past.

Commissioned by the Bradford Culture Company – the group set up to run Bradford 2025 – the trail will be based in the park on a temporary basis.

The works are expected to be installed in May, and be removed in October, the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A planning application for the sculpture trail was submitted by Bradford Culture Company late last year, and has now been approved by Bradford Council.

There had been one objection from someone who feared the artwork might be vandalised.

But planners said one individual fearing potential vandalism was not a valid reason to block a major part of Bradford's City of Culture celebrations.

Other sculptures would reflect the flora of the district's moorland and "mysterious beings from theology".

Planners said: "The area is a popular, well-used area by walkers and visitors to the surrounding area.

"The artworks would be sited within a public upland park and are for public benefit as part of the City of Culture celebrations."

Council officers added that the trail's "temporary nature" would ensure that the impact on openness on the land, which is in the Green Belt, would only be for a "short period".

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.