NHS sculptures mistaken for 'fly tipping'

Sculptures placed on a roundabout as an army veteran's tribute to the NHS were removed after being mistaken for fly-tipping.

Former Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineer Martin Feeney said he felt "violated" after his work went missing from Radstock, Somerset.

His wife Andrea Feeney said "heaven knows" how the sculptures, now back in place, were mistaken for rubbish.

Bath and North East Somerset Council has apologised for the "error".

Mr Feeney, who teaches blacksmithing at Army Engineering College in Lyneham, spent several weeks creating the silhouettes out of metal.

The sculptures of a nurse holding out a red heart and the outline of a rainbow key were installed on Frome Road in June.

"We got permission to put them on the roundabout and everyone loved them," said Mrs Feeney.

"But at the weekend a council worker put them on a flatbed trailer and removed them".

She said her husband, "felt sick" when he found out but after making calls to the town mayor and a local councillor the missing sculptures had been located and reinstated.

"We had over 300 messages asking where they were and saying 'we want them back'," she said.

"How on earth they thought they were fly-tipped heavens only knows, but Martin is over the moon they're back and we're absolutely delighted."

Rupert Bevan, Mayor of Radstock, said a council worker "thought they had been abandoned" and had taken "them home for safekeeping".

Councillor David Wood apologised for "any concern that may have been caused".

"Whilst clearing fly-tipped items on the roundabout, our team took the sculptures away too in error," he said.

"These were returned to their positions and the area has been thoroughly cleaned."

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