Investigation finds council staff to blame for knocking down Wedgwood statue

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has released the findings of a report into the removal of a significant city statue on Festival Way.

The iconic ‘Capo’ brick sculpture of the head of Josiah Wedgwood by renowned artist Vincent Woropay was very seriously damaged during works to expand the Marina Way roundabout at Festival Park, at the end of January.

The works are a Stoke-on-Trent City Council initiative to improve access to Festival Park, following the opening of the Etruria Valley Link Road at the start of the year.

"Council officers were responsible"

An internal council investigation into what went wrong has found that council officers were responsible for the instructions to contractors that led to the statue being removed without due care.

The investigation has found that contractor Galliford Try has no culpability, and that council officers acted without proper authorisation and did not follow agreed council processes.

The investigation was ordered by council leader Abi Brown, who had no prior knowledge of the issue until the incident had taken place. The report has today (Friday) been published, along with a management response by city director Jon Rouse.

The report contains five recommendations that have been fully accepted by the city director, who will now consider any disciplinary consequences for individual officers flowing from the report.

City director Jon Rouse said: “This event was deeply regrettable and I want to offer apologies on behalf of the council. We will ensure that in future no decision can be made about any significant work of public art in the city without a proper consideration of its cultural and social value, and without adherence to a proper process, including public engagement.”

A full restoration is in planning

Councillor Brown instructed officers to do all they can to save the important work of art, and the authority can now update that steps have been taken to sensitively handle its restoration.

Councillor Brown said: “I care deeply about our city’s culture and heritage, as I know residents across our city do. I know that the council’s workforce does as well, which is why this investigation has been taken so seriously to put every safeguard in place to stop this from happening again.

“I’m really pleased to say that despite the severe damage, we have engaged specialists to help us assess and agree how best to reconstruct the statue. A careful audit and survey will now take place of all of the recovered parts of the statue – of which there is a considerable amount.

“I have made it very clear that I expect the statue to be fully restored and from these initial assessments it will enable a better understanding of the work involved to do this. When the restoration is completed, and we cannot put a timeframe on that at this stage, a consultation will take place for the most appropriate place to relocate the statue to, so that it can be seen and enjoyed by residents and visitors to the city for years to come.”