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25
Oct 2021
Call to remove damaged Valley Garden statues
The chair of Harrogate International Partnerships has called for damaged statues in the town's Valley Gardens to be removed.
Vandals ripped out chunks of wood from the Kiwi bird and the carved Maori bench in the New Zealand garden section of Valley Gardens last year.
Dennis Richards, chair of the HIP, a charity that supports twinning groups, told the Stray Ferret the sculptures needed to be removed in order for the charity to come up with proposals to replace them.
The section of Valley Gardens commemorates Harrogate’s twinning with Wellington and the country’s airmen being stationed in the town during World War Two.
However, Mr Richards said the council needed to remove the statues. It follows concern about the condition of them ahead of a visit to Wellington by the HIP.
He said:
Mr Richard added that once the structures are removed, the HIP will put forward proposals with what could replace them.
Read more:
- How can Harrogate achieve a net-zero carbon economy?
- State of Harrogate’s New Zealand gardens ‘dishonours’ airmen
Last week, Kate Spencer, the HIP’s representative who has travelled to New Zealand as part of the twinning arrangement, raised concern that the conditions “dishonoured” the airmen commemorated in the gardens.
Valley Gardens development plan
Harrogate Borough Council said in a statement previously that the sculptures had “already started to rot independent of any vandalism that has taken place”.
It added:
The garden dates back to 1954 and chainsaw sculptor Mick Burns carved the Marlin, Kiwi, and bench in 2010.
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