Council complacent over plan to shift statue

IN spite of Charles Dickens’s request that there should be no memorial to his memory (Yorkshire Post, February 20), one cannot but agree with Portsmouth councillor Lee 
Hunt’s remark: “This is a marvellous tribute to an incredible man. Everyone in Portsmouth should feel immensely proud that his statue is here in his home town.”

The artist William Etty did far more for his native city than simply being born here. His struggle to save York as a “heritage site” is inspirational.

Everyone in York should be immensely proud that his statue is here in his home town.

Unhappily, Etty’s statue does not fit in with the council’s “vision” of Exhibition Square as a swish “reinvigorated” location for “entertainments”. Although the council’s head of culture denied that the statue was to be moved, the Reinvigorate York questionnaire invites York residents to either have it shifted or stored. Keeping it in situ is not an option.

Councillors have accepted this volte face with the same complacency shown in their response to the council’s original assurance.

This illustrates a York councillor’s assertion that York Council officers’ statements are to be believed “100 per cent”.

From this, one may deduce what percentage credibility York councillors accord those residents who don’t.