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Suffolk council approves plans to light up giant Yoxman statue

John Fairhall/BBC The Yoxman statueJohn Fairhall/BBC
The Yoxman has been lit up before, but the owners at Cockfield Hall were seeking formal planning approval for permanent lighting

An artist shared his joy that plans to illuminate his giant statue next to the A12 have been approved.

The Yoxman is a 26ft (7.9m) bronze statue, installed in a field in Yoxford, Suffolk, in November 2021.

Yoxford Parish Council previously objected to the application, stating the lighting could be "potentially hazardous" for passing traffic.

Artist Laurence Edwards said he was "thrilled" East Suffolk Council had permitted the plans.

Plans to install floodlights at the site were submitted on behalf of Wilderness Reserve Suffolk Ltd in May 2023.

Laurence Edwards with the Yoxman
Sculptor Laurence Edwards has said the Yoxman was "a lightning rod for loads of issues about ecology and what we are doing to this planet"

The application for Cockfield Hall states that three lights "would be installed within the ground to the south of the statue" and would be focused on the statue itself.

The lighting is planned to be controlled by a solar tracking timeclock, which Mr Edwards describes as a "sophisticated system".

"For me, it will be like the sun's afterglow at the end of the day, reminding me of how the bronze slowly cools in the moulds after a bronze pour in the cold winter evenings," he said.

The conditions for the permission mean the statue can be lit in in the evening, but not between 23:00 and dusk the following day.

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