HAVING read Michael Edwards recent letter I would like to clarify some misconceptions regarding the Sluice sculpture and ADeC s funding. Public art is not part of ADeC s brief; although we provide arts development services for East Cambridgeshire Distri

HAVING read Michael Edwards' recent letter I would like to clarify some misconceptions regarding the Sluice sculpture and ADeC's funding.

Public art is not part of ADeC's brief; although we provide arts development services for East Cambridgeshire District Council, they retained the provision of public art in-house. None of ADeC's funding went towards the sculpture, which was paid for by the Arts Council and Section 106 money held by ECDC. Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts in England, distributing public money from Government and the National Lottery.

ADeC was commissioned by ECDC to deliver the community arts aspect of the project - which we did very successfully involving more than 150 local young people and their families in creative art workshops.

In reply to David and Helen Ford's email, the Babylon Gallery has a large sign on the building. On the thorny issue of A-boards, the gallery, along with other local businesses, understands the difficulty of displaying them legally - we wish it were otherwise - they are a very effective way of encouraging visitors. Despite this, we had more than 25,000 visitors to the gallery last year and are now the second most visited attraction in Ely after the cathedral.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say how grateful we are as an organisation for the huge level of support we have received from many people - with more than 2,000 local people having signed our petition. We hope this level of support will help our bid for The Maltings as a community arts centre - giving Ely Cinema and other community arts events a guaranteed future home.

CAROLINE CAWLEY

ADeC, marketing manager