WITH plenty of public art already -- and much controversy about it as well -- no doubt new arguments will rage over whether East Lancashire wants or needs more.

The so-called Panopticons Project plans to erect six huge sculptures on upland sites at key access routes into the region.

It is with trepidation that I await the designs. For going off what we have got so far and given the condition of the competition which is being run for the new sculptures -- that they must be "eye catching" -- you can safely bet that many will be monstrous.

And it is not just their size to which I am referring.

But inevitable as a "Yes, but is it art?" debate is over them, what concerns me more is the cost -- a cool £1million. And what else it could buy.

Already, as if to allay outrage over such luxury spending from East Lancashire householders hit this month by council tax bills up by around 10 per cent, we are told that some £600,000 has so far been found for the project, which is the brainchild of the region's six councils and art groups.

Of this, £200,000 is coming from the fund for the East Lancashire Regional Park concept, backed by the councils and business, and £400,000 from the North West Development Agency which dishes out government money for regeneration projects.

But though there may be some private-sector cash in what's in the kitty so far -- how much, pray? -- a considerable amount of public money will nonetheless be going into these statues when it could be spent on far better things.

Oh, I know the argument that says that if government or councils followed that strict formula, there would never be any public art to brighten (or blight) our towns or landscape.

This is rubbish -- people are quite prepared to chip in as private individuals to public monuments that they support. East Lancashire has lots of examples -- Darwen Tower, the Mercer Memorial in Great Harwood, Queen Victoria's statue in Blackburn, and more.

So it is fair, then, to ask what other and better things are deserving of hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money in East Lancashire instead of colossal decorative sculptures that, if present form is followed, stand to offend more eyes than please them.

You can start your own list. But up near the top of mine would be folk like 81-year-old disabled war veteran Thames Bywater, of Blackburn, who with just the state pension to live off, has had to give up the home help he relied on to help him have a bath twice a week and tidy his home -- because the art-loving council has more than trebled what he paid.

What do you reckon old Tom would prefer to see from his living room window -- an Angel of the North-style statue on the skyline or an 'angel' home help coming up the path?

If you ask me it's not just the public art that's often surreal, but also the priorities of those who commission it at painful public expense.