Sculptor hits out in row over roadside artwork

The work, entitled Remorse, has been attracting positive attention, but according to sculptor Andrew Vickers, the scrutiny of local council officers has also led to calls for its removal.

Mr Vickers, who was recently commissioned by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield to create a new war memorial for the city, said he was stunned when told his work was a "distraction".

He has been told that the work could be a hazard to road users by Sheffield Council highways officers, who were alerted after Bradfield Parish Council made an official complaint.

The site of the sculpture lies just inside the boundary of the Bradfield parish, which covers a 53-square-mile swathe of Peak District countryside on the western edge of Sheffield.

Mr Vickers said: "I just could not believe it when Sheffield Council called me to say that the parish council had complained about the sculpture. They said it was a distraction.

"I am just trying to make the area look more attractive and get people noticing my work. I think the parish council should be encouraging people like me and not putting us off.

"Also I don't know why Bradfield Parish Council had to go the city council to get them to tell me about it, I would have been happy to discuss it with them like real human beings. Now I have no desire to move the carving at all.

"It totally bemuses me that both these councils are willing to have a go at me and I will resist them the best I can. How can they say the sculpture is dangerous? What about the Angel of the North?"

The sculptor recently bought a piece of woodland called Storr's Wood close to where he has placed his controversial work to allow him to show some of his larger pieces to the public.

He said Remorse had been carved as part of his work in preparation for the new Sheffield war memorial and was designed to depict the feelings of those left behind by the war dead.

Mr Vickers added: "I wanted to try out some of my ideas for the memorial on the public as much as anything else and nobody I have spoken to has said anything negative about it at all."

Several of Mr Vickers' carvings are on display in the local area, including work in the Millennium Gardens in nearby Oughtibridge and waymarkers in Dunford Bridge and Dungworth.

He has even carried out work on waymarkers for Bradfield Parish Council and said that everyone who had seen Remorse had spoken of their admiration for the work.

Bradfield Parish Council clerk Teresa Bisatt said members had brought the sculpture to the attention of highways officials after receiving "several anonymous complaints" about it.

She added: "We also had parishioners coming to our meetings saying the sculpture was an eyesore, a road safety hazard and had been placed there without permission.

"The sculpture is actually on private land so there is nothing the parish council can do, but the parishoners then asked us to raise the issue with Sheffield Council's highways department.

"Our only involvement has been to bring it to attention of the relevant authorities."

Mr Vickers first started as a sculptor several years ago when he began carving faces in the dry stone walls in the countryside around his home in Dunford Bridge.

A spokesman for Sheffield Council confirmed that highways officers had contacted Mr Vickers about the sculpture and asked him to move it so that it did not constitute a hazard.

The spokesman added: "We have asked if he can move it a metre or so away from the road so it does not distract drivers."

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