Sculpture cost row is set for council airing

Council leaders are being grilled over the spiralling cost of Shrewsbury's controversial Quantum Leap sculpture - with one critic demanding to why it does not look like the artist's impressions.

The sculpture and a Darwin Memorial Garden in Mardol Quay have been created to celebrate the town's most famous son Charles Darwin and to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth.

But the project sparked uproar after it was revealed that Shropshire Council had been forced to spend an extra £100,000 on the artwork, with the final budget adjusted to £450,000.

It came after the sculpture was reconfigured after it was estimated to be out of alignment by 18 inches.

Now Councillor Jon Tandy, Shropshire Council ward member for Sutton, has posed a series of questions to the authority's portfolio holder for leisure and culture, Councillor Stephen Charmley, demanding to know what went wrong.

In an official question to be tabled at tomorrow's full council meeting, Mr Tandy asks how the overspend has arisen and whether any mistakes were made in the "site investigation, design, budgeting and artists impressions, particularly the prominent solid concrete bases?"

In his reply Councillor Charmley will say the sculpture had to be deconstructed and re-built to protect trees in the area as instructed by the council's tree conservation officer.

Mr Charmley said the council did not believe that the finished sculpture was different to the original sketches and drawings.