Who exactly voted for the Gormley statue?

YOU have published much recently concerning the newly erected creation in Plymouth by Sir Antony Gormley.

I have a difficulty with the current state of affairs. The council have said they cannot reveal the cost because of a confidentiality agreement with Gormley. There can be no other reason than it would show a large price which might put off any future clients he might have.

However, as the council only receive money from the public purse, either direct from local taxation or from Westminster’s generous return of money that was ours in the first place, and since those funds are entrusted to them to pay for the needs of the local community, the accounts have to be audited.

Can we expect a line in the accounts for the current year which says something like: “Expenditure which we are not going to tell you about”? Surely the auditors will have some difficulty over signing off an account which has a hole. And I thought it was only the EU who suffered from that problem!

If they continue to hide this figure they will have to explain why they spent around £500 repairing/ strengthening the bit of real estate upon which this creation has been placed. It occurs to me that there must be dozens of people in the Plymouth area with the skill to weld up a collection of off-cuts of iron/ steel into a similar object for just a few hundred pounds.

It would be refreshing if the leader of the council would do us the courtesy of explaining how this expenditure is to be shown in the accounts, even if it involves some creative accounting manoeuvres.

It would also allow those who voted in favour of this expenditure to identify themselves to the people who elected them, and who knows, they might be praised and thanked profusely.

C H White Tavistock