Yahoo News Shopping centre defends rainbow 'buddy benches' for combatting loneliness
The brightly coloured benches are outside the Longton Exchange Shopping Centre in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
A shopping centre has defended its decision to install "buddy benches" to help combat loneliness.
The brightly coloured rainbow seats were installed outside the Longton Exchange Shopping Centre in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, last year, but have sparked debate in the past few days. The shopping centre posted a picture of one of the benches on its Facebook page last Thursday.
It wrote: "Our rainbow Buddy Benches are a lovely place to stop and rest. Take a seat and brighten someone's day with a sprinkle of kindness!" The idea behind the benches is that if someone sits on one, it means they are open to talk to anyone else who decides to join them.
The post received a number of comments from people backing the benches, saying they were a positive way to battle loneliness, but others criticised the seats, calling them "woke" and "cheap". However, in response to the criticism, one Facebook user wrote: "Imagine being frightened of the rainbow coloured benches."
The shopping centre defended the benches, with manager Chris Ward telling Yahoo News UK: "The benches have largely been extremely well received and have become a focal point for Longton Exchange." He said: "The idea is that when shoppers sit on a Buddy Bench, it indicates that they are open to having a chat with whoever comes to sit next to them.
"We are proud to be an inclusive shopping centre and feel this is a positive way to support the whole community. We believe that art is open to interpretation and is designed to create conversation and even debate."
Longton Exchange commissioned artist Hannah Walton to design and pain the benches. Walton, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, responded to some of the criticism.
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"I can see why they might have thought it was representing LGBT because the rainbow represents that but also the rainbow has always existed," she said. "It's used by the NHS, it's used for mental health, which is the vein we were going down.
"We could have painted it a block colour and that colour might have been associated with something else. I think people are quick to jump to conclusions sometimes. I'm very proud of the finished benches, they look great, I love the concept."
Amid the social media backlash against the benches, some said they made the surrounding area look "cheap", while other critics said they should be painted black. But someone responded: "Imagine being that sensitive over your own masculinity that you get triggered by a rainbow coloured bench."
Loneliness in the UK
According to the government's Community Life Survey, published last May, 6% of those surveyed, the equivalent of about three million people in England, said they feel lonely often or always. About 10 million people, or 21% of those surveyed, said they never feel lonely.
Men were more likely than women to say they never felt lonely, the survey found. Those aged 16 to 24 were the most likely group to say they feel lonely often or always.
The Campaign to End Loneliness organisation says 49.6% of adults in the UK, about 26 million people, say they feel lonely occasionally, sometimes, often or always.
