weather<\/a> and wildlife.\u00a0The later is mentioned because there\u2019s a school of thought that he was \u2018plucked\u2019 of his composition material by nesting birds!\n<\/p>\n\n “The South West of England deserves – and needs – something better.\u00a0For me the next best thing further down the drive to the SW is the much smaller but iconic \u2018Orange Elephant\u2019 – an oversized orange-coloured cow along the A38 near Kennford promoting a farm ice cream shop.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “Monument Man – I fear your time is nearly over. \u00a0And so, today, I have taken the singular liberty of rechristening you (given your appearance and to keep on trend with the world of weight loss) \u2018Wegovy Man\u2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n “But that may be only temporary. I fear soon he will be \u2018Wherehashegone Man\u2019!”\n<\/p>\n
\n National Highways\u00a0provided \u00a335,000 in November 2023 for a study to explore whether the Willow Man could be repaired or replaced with a new artwork, but Somerset Council said, following this study, it would cost up to \u00a31m to replace the sculpture.\n<\/p>\n
\n Somerset Council added that if a business or organisation was willing to ‘take the lead’ on the project, they would be happy to share the feasibility work and support them.\n<\/p>\n
\n The council spokesperson said: \u201cSomerset Council recognises the affection that people across the county have for the Willow Man, and that is why we helped secure external funding for detailed feasibility work. \u00a0Those studies confirmed both the public\u2019s strong attachment to the sculpture and the significant costs involved in repairing, recreating or relocating it \u2013 estimated at over \u00a31\u202fmillion.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAs outlined, the council must focus its limited resources on essential services, and we cannot justify committing public funds or staff time to take this project forward.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSince the feasibility work was completed, no organisation has come forward with a viable, fully funded proposal to rebuild or re\u2011imagine the Willow Man.\n<\/p>\n
\n “However, if a business, community organisation or consortium wished to take the lead, whether through sponsorship, fundraising or an alternative vision, we would be very happy to share the feasibility work and support them in exploring what might be possible.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Willow Man, which was created in 2000 by Serena de la Hey, stands near junction 23 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-498741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}