A North Lincolnshire man will be allowed to keep the unique sculptures in his front garden despite neighbours complaining it looks like a “gift shop”.
Lee Morris, 52, who lives in Woods Meadow, Hibaldstow, installed four military aeroplane statues and a dragon statue in his garden. In one particularly strongly-worded comment on the retrospective planning application, someone wrote: “Game of Thrones want their dragon back.”
Another person said: “It is like they have ram raided Duxford Imperial War Museum gift shop.” Lee told Grimsby Live he was disappointed people had referred to his garden as a “theme park” and said the plane sculptures were a nod to the village’s military history, with RAF Hibaldstow opening in 1941.
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Lee has also had a fair amount of support from other history enthusiasts. He added: “I’ve had the other side too, older men come and ask if they can come and have a look in my garden because I’ve got an old Lancaster and other stuff.”
In the planning meeting, Valerie Moore, a neighbour, demanded the immediate removal of the statues. She claimed that one of the planes hangs over the boundary hedge.
She told councillors: "Since the last meeting, nothing has changed. This development is still totally inappropriate for the neighbourhood.
“If North Lincolnshire planning committee allow the precedent of this type of theme park installation in a residential area, surely they’d be failing the residents.”
Fortunately for Lee, her plea for an immediate removal order at North Lincolnshire Council’s planning committee was unsuccessful. Councillors previously visited the sculptures in person and had mixed views on them visually.
Trevor Foster, councillor for Ridge Ward, said: “It’s certainly got a wow factor.” Bottesford councillor John Davison said: “I suppose to a certain degree, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Max Bell, the councillor for Ashby Lakeside, was surprised by how imposing the three-metre high statues were. He was the only councillor to oppose the approval of the retrospective planning application.
There’s something so quintessentially British about this, isn’t there? The place names, the petty squabbling, the appeal to beauracracy, the fact that it’s published in the Grimsby telegraph.
The bullying of anyone who doesn’t conform.
It’s very… parochial.
The dragon’s a bit naff, the aircraft are ok, the tractor is excellent and I want it but I draw the line at the twee concrete pony and trap. For which the rhyming slang is quite appropriate. I expect that’s the only one to which the stuck-up neighbours don’t object.
Some of the ornamental stuff is a bit naff but at least the planes have local historical relevance. I get the feeling the complaining neighbours are way too stick-up-the-arse.
