A councillor has branded Newark and Sherwood District Council’s plans to spend more than £80,000 relocating 12 stone sculptures as a “folly”. The council recently consulted on plans to spend £81,240 moving the ‘Kiddey Stones’, designed by Nottinghamshire-born sculptor Robert Kiddey, to its headquarters to form part of an art trail. The Kiddey Stones each stand two metres tall and collectively weigh more than eight tonnes.
They feature panels depicting electricity production throughout history and had been based at Wilford Power Station until it was demolished in the 1980s. They are now kept at Newark Cemetery but are out of public view. During a Policy and Performance Improvement Committee on Monday (October 28), the council’s spending on culture, heritage and arts projects was criticised.
Roger Jackson, who represents Dover Beck, said the authority had provided no figures on how projects — including the relocation of the Kiddey Stones — would positively impact businesses and the local economy. “That’s an important part of it,” he said. “Yes, culture is important, and we do need it, but to go back to £10 per head, which we were nearly 20 years ago, to pay for it I think is a folly “Why are we paying £80,000 on the Kiddey Stones, a folly like that? “The cost of culture is too high for what the district gets out of it.
” Rowan Cozens, the council’s deputy leader and portfolio holder for heritage, culture and the arts, said: “We perhaps have .
