Funding for the project came from the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS), the initial advertising leaflet was paid for by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) and there was also a small grant from Sustrans, who fund art installations along cyclepaths, to deal with maintenance requirements in the years before Somerset County Council took on that responsibility. In order to apply for the COPUS funding Youngman needed two 'sponsors', so he wrote to Arthur C. Clarke (a local boy himself, then living in Sri Lanka) and Patrick Moore, who both wrote warm letters in support. Arthur C Clarke's brother Fred read out his letter at the opening ceremony.