Bears and green men to feature at tomorrow’s Transport meeting

No fewer than seven deputations are scheduled to speak at tomorrow morning’s meeting so it may turn out to be a longish affair.

Most of the deputations are connected to the council’s stated plans ‘Building a Vision for the City Centre’. Many of the deputations object to the steam roller approach which they think the council has adopted in announcing it will trial the one-way arrangements in the city centre. This, they believe, contravenes the views expressed during the consultation phase.

A further deputation (which might be a little easier for the committee to deal with) will be made by the Wojtek Memorial Trust. The group want to show the kind of memorial that they wish to be put up in Princes Street Gardens to commemorate the wartime bear.

The story runs that the bear cub was adopted by the Polish Army who found it alone after its mother had been shot. The bear was brought up by the soldiers and taught to salute on command. He sailed with the Polish Army for Italy and was then brought to Berwickshire in 1945. Following his arrival here he was given to Edinburgh Zoo where he lived until the age of 22. This seems a pale uninteresting life in comparison with his wartime exploits (when admittedly he was a lot smaller than his eventual 500 lbs) such as drinking beer and smoking or eating cigarettes.

The deputation made the following request:-

“I would like to request that Raymond Muszynski (Morris & Steedman Associates) and I be allowed to attend the meeting of the Transport and Environment Committee on June 4th to speak briefly to the item on the proposal for a statue of Wojtek the Bear to be placed in Princes Street Gardens.

I will be able to make a small bronze available for display to supplement the report prepared by David Jamieson.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Krystyna Szumelukowa Trustee

Wojtek Memorial Trust”