DRIVER SAYS HE’S BEARY SCARY, SO HE’S GOT TO GO
But locals are fighting order to have landmark grizzly bear removed after woman crashed
A10FT statue of a bear has been ordered to be removed from a Welsh roadside – after a scared woman driver blamed it for causing a crash.
The wooden grizzly bear has guarded Britain’s smallest town of Llanwrtyd Wells, population 850, for more than 15 years, as a roadside landmark.
But safety chiefs demanded it be taken away from the Mid-Wales town after a woman feared the wooden animal was real – and she careered off the road into a signpost.
She complained to highways officials, who ordered the bear away on health and safety grounds.
But locals are fighting the removal – with councillor Peter James saying: “He has been an iconic gateway of the town for 15 or more years.
“I don’t understand why he has to be moved now, it’s been in situ for years.
“We have pleaded with the Welsh Government to listen to us on road safety, but the Welsh Government seem to get things the wrong way round.
“They’ve not discussed removing him with the town council or local people. They must know Llanwrtyd is an iconic place but they seem to want to step in our way.”
“The bear has been there quite a period of time, at least 12 to 15 years. He was introduced by the previous owners but I’m not quite sure why.”
Another Llanwrtyd resident, who asked not to be named, said the woman crashed because she feared the bear would attack her.
The man said: “The driver of the vehicle that crashed into the sign was passing and saw the bear and thought it was going to jump out at her and that caused her to lose control of the vehicle.
“Apparently she had been on holiday in Canada, or was from Canada, so was used to seeing bears in Canada. She can’t have been from around here or she would have seen him before, as he’s been there years.
“The bear has been there a few years and I’m not aware of anybody ever having objected to it before.
“He has become a bit of a landmark but if that’s what the powers that be have decided we don’t really have much say in it, but it seems a bit of a palaver because one woman got frightened by it.”
The bear is believed to have been originally put at the roadside by the Cambrian Woollen Mill on the site. But it closed recently and is up for sale.