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Daughter's plea amid Cross Gates sculpture row
A businesswoman has called for people to honour her late mother's memory in the aftermath of the Cross Gates sculpture row.
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And Kirstie Cale, who runs florists Arts and Flowers, has backed Leeds council's decision to launch an inquiry into the public art saga.
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A storm of criticism erupted in Cross Gates over the sculpture, first when it appeared, but painted in the wrong colours, and then when its cost was revealed by Cross Gates Today as 143,000.
The idea for a monument marking the entrance to Cross Gates first came from Ms Cale's mother, Jennifer Lancaster, who was a leading light in the suburb's traders' association.
After Mrs Lancaster's death, in 2005, Ms Cale, aided by local councillors Peter Gruen and Pauleen Grahame, took up the campaign for a local landmark.
After more than a month of mainly negative comment, Ms Cale has now called for calm.
She revealed that her aunt, her mother's sister, had been reduced to tears by comments made by passengers travelling on a bus through Cross Gates.
Ms Cale said: "Of course people are entitled to their opinions but there comes a time to move on. It's not on for my auntie to hear her sister slagged off like that.
"It would be good if people took a second to think and remembered what my mum did for Cross Gates before they go over the same old ground again about the roundabout."
Ms Cale said she had not made, nor asked for, any money from the sculpture scheme.
She said she agreed that 143,000 was too big a bill for a piece of public art, and said the inquiry was needed to get to the bottom of what had gone wrong.
She said: "There are loads of unanswered questions. We need to know who authorised that cost and exactly how the colours came to be changed at the last second."
Cross Gates Today learned that the gates were meant to be red, black and white, but a council officer intervened at the last moment over fears they would be subjected to anti-Manchester United vandalism.
Ms Cale thanked those who had sent her letters of support, and praised the artists who added sheep and a 'welcome to Cross Gates' sign to the monument.
She added: "Fair play to them, it made me laugh. Let's put more sheep on, they make it look better."
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Weather for Leeds
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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