Sean Henry's Banality in the UK

Very few people in the village knew anything about the bay works until AFTER they started. When I complained that there was no information available, I was told that 'just because you live overlooking the bay, you do not own it'. The planning applications were passed by the council with NO local consultations. At the belated public meeting to advise on work already progressing most people were angry that the bloke is wearing a flat cap, and that they were totally unrepresentative of the area. We have over a thousand years of history in the village - we were once the third largest grain port in the country, we have a direct link to Scottish King John de Baliol, we have the oldest working RNLI station in the world, the first telegraph cable across the North Sea came out next to Bertorelli's. but all that counts for nothing.
A bloke wearing a flat cap, with his missus, showing their backs to the village.
Almost all the fishing community agree that the breakwater is in the wrong place - it will cause a vortex at each end which will strip the sand away and will be dangerous to sailing, swimming, etc. but of course, they weren't asked. The contractors dismissed all questions about the siting by claiming that they had done all the calculations on the most up to date computer simulations and they KNEW it was right - but within days of the sand arriving a deep gully appeared at the south end of the bay and they did not know what to do about it. Oh Dear.
The bay has been ruined.

we were there the night the statue was put up. my grandparents have lived in newbiggain for 40 years+. and i am saddend that such a monstersity was put up in such a beautiful place. a quote from my grandfather of 88 years, (he was born and bred in Newbiggain, and was working down the 'MINES'(which he almost lost his life in) in this 'FISHING VILLAGE') HIS QUOTE "If they had to put up any statue, could it not have been something relevent to the area, such as a couble (fishing boat), or something concerned with the mines, as it is a fishing and mining village". i am a 15 year old, and have been going tho Newbiggain sins i was little, and i personally feel that it ruins the beauty, of this picturesce bay. and has brought alot of distress to the residence of this lovely village, my grandparents incuded.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but "The Couple" seems like a wry comment on Florida beach culture. A southern version of Edward Hopper's New York denizens staring out of their apartment windows in to the light. It might actually be interesting. But the devil is in the details, as they say.