Clash as councillor brands planned £80,000 spend on Kiddey Stones artwork project a ‘folly’ at Newark and Sherwood District Council meeting

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 a different view, but I don’t see culture, heritage and the arts as a peripheral thing or a luxury.

“Times are different now. We do have more expendable time and we also have extremely depressed young people, very sad and very distressed young people. Since austerity there has been a 70% funding cut in that sector particularly.

“Neglecting the creative industries, dismissing it, and seeing it as an area that should be cut, goes against the trends at the moment I have to say, councillor Jackson.”

During the meeting councillors were shown a presentation highlighting the council’s plans to spend £2.45million on heritage, culture and the arts in 2024-25.

This included £469,000 in grant funding, £906,520 from the reinvestment of income and just over £1million in council resources.

The council’s capital projects in the sector are worth £6.928million, of which £2.365million comes from the council’s own funds.

Projects promoting the arts include the Daisy Exhibition over Newark Marketplace and book-themed benches across the district.

A number of heritage projects are also underway, including the revamp of Newark Castle Gatehouse, while the council’s collection of 95,000 objects, many of which have local or national significance, are to be taken out into the community across the district as part of the ‘Our Heritage’ project.

Many objects from the now-closed Millgate Folk Museum will be put back on display as part of the project, Ms Cozens said.

Jack Kellas, who represents Farndon and Fernwood, questioned whether the council’s spending on the projects was a priority for residents.

“The presentation says two in 25, eight percent, voted providing arts and culture services in the top five,” he said.

“My concern is when we look at the residents’ survey data it was the bottom priority when residents were asked to pick their top priorities.”

Ms Cozens said there had been an “unusual level of interest” in the Kiddey Stones project, with 853 completed responses to the consultation.

She added survey data is only one of the ways the council is looking at what people want.