I READ with interest your article on the proposed sculpture to be placed on the roundabout or adjacent to it at the end of the new Bedale bypass (D&S Times, July 7).

It stated that the general feeling amongst the local population was that a 20-foot-high curlew was inappropriate and did not blend in with the local surroundings.

This statement is at odds with the reception it received at the original viewing, which I attended, when it was the first choice of those present. I have no idea what discussion has taken place since, who conducted it or how many people were consulted but it would be nice to have these facts made available to us.

Bedale quite rightly takes pride in claiming the title “the Gateway to the Dales” so surely they should come up with something that the public who will be driving past this work of art are likely to see when they eventually get to their destination.

They will see lots of curlews, lapwings, grouse (both red and, if they are lucky, black), snipe, oyster catchers, buzzards, hares, rabbits etc and lot and lots of sheep, cattle and horses. Deer are there also, but the chances of seeing them are remote.

Surely a sculpture such as this is meant to make a statement like Newcastle’s Angel of the North or the proposed Man of Steel near Sheffield albeit on a smaller scale for a town the size of Bedale? So why not a ten-foot-high curlew or something similarly appropriate?

But that is not what the authorities want. They want to fob us off with a small herd of deer which we are told will be life-size and will be a showstopper encouraging people to come and visit the town.

I think that the council definition of a showstopper and most peoples are poles apart.

Their reason for this choice is that in the dim and distant past there was a deer park at Bedale Hall. If there was then it would almost certainly be roe deer that lived there which stand between only sixty to seventy centimetres high at the shoulder.

So at the side of the road there will be something resembling a small herd of goats – to my mind, a far cry from the proposed showstopper.

What kind of message does that send out about the Gateway to the Dales?

Bill Tetlow, Exelby