VOTE: Bolton Council to foot bill for Dibnah statue damage

10:51am Saturday 31st May 2008

REPAIRS to the damaged town centre statue of Fred Dibnah will be paid for by Bolton Council.

Town hall bosses have confirmed that they will foot the bill for the work to mend the steeplejack's glasses, which were broken in a vandal attack.

Council officers are now looking through CCTV footage from the area to see if they can track down the culprits.

That area of Oxford Street, Knowsley Street and Deansgate is covered by rotating CCTV cameras.

A council spokesman said: "We were saddened to hear about this act of vandalism and we have agreed to undertake the repairs for Bolton Civic Trust.

"We will be speaking to them to agree a time scale to restore Fred to his old self."

The eight-foot statue in Oxford Street was unveiled at the end of April by the then Mayor of Bolton, Cllr Barbara Ronson, after a three-year campaign to raise funds.

Sculptor Jane Robbins, from Shropshire, created the statue of Fred wearing his trademark waistcoat and flat cap. She also included his wire rimmed spectacles, but warned at the time that they may be vulnerable to attack.

Brian Tetlow, chairman of Bolton Civic Trust, welcomed the decision by the council.

He said: "It's very generous and most welcome. Obviously, at this juncture, we are probably going to renew the spectacles in the hope that they won't get damaged again.

"If it continues then we may have to consider removing them. They are not absolutely essential, but they are part of the character of the statue."

Mr Tetlow said he had spoken to the sculptor, who said she would craft some new spectacles.

He also said he welcomed any decision to train a CCTV camera on the statue.

"If people know they are being filmed, they are less likely to get up to any mischief," he said.

Cllr Elaine Sherrington, Bolton Council's executive member for Cleaner, Greener, Safer said that CCTV operators were looking through footage to see if there were any clues to lead them to the vandals.

She said: "They are trawling through CCTV, but it does not appear that someone has been on a vandalism spree.

"The likelihood is that this was a prank. We don't think it's anything more than that."