ANOTHER artist is to be taken on to redesign a small patch of inner city Southampton.

The appointment of Winchester School of Art-trained Bruce Williams will bring the number of professional artists on the project to three.

He will be paid around £8,000 for the work - on top of a £75,000 budget given to Irish sculptor Eilis O'Connell for a landmark sculpture at the corner of Thomas Lewis Way and Lodge Road, and a further £5,000 for Amanda Randall to transform an area by the Singh Sabha Gurdwara.

Mr Williams was originally second choice behind Ms O'Connell for the large sculpture development.

The £8,000 fee for the latest artwork will be paid either by the council or will come through sponsorship. The other two art projects came from money set aside for the revamp of Bevois Valley.

Mr Williams, who specialises in transferring images onto material like steel, will be given the task of creating artwork for an electronic panel, which will be fixed to the Mr H Carpets shop in Bevois Valley Road.

His artwork will be one of three panels - the other two will flash up local information about the regeneration project and businesses.

The design must specifically relate to the character of the local area, civic chiefs have ruled.

Regeneration boss Paul Jenks said: "We wanted something in the valley, as we will have artwork at both ends. The design of the work will be agreed through public consultation and the council."

The commission has now been approved by the council's environment committee.

But the news of further investment in art has angered ward councillor Conor Burns.

"We have higher priorities in the fifth most deprived ward in the South East than public art and we shouldn't divert our limited resources into it. Our priorities should be the poverty, deprivation and social alienation of local people," he said.

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