Builder erects gargoyle-like sculpture of council leader as Wiltshire planning row turns ugly

[Still Waters]

Most leaders have to wait until after they’ve died for the statues and monuments of them to go up. But all the Trowbridge town council leader, Stewart Palmen, needed to see his likeness in stone was a planning dispute.

An angry builder in the middle of a three-year spat with local authorities has erected a stone gargoyle-like carving of Palmen on a roof in Trowbridge.

The sculpture of Palmen’s face, with his signature half-moon spectacles and the bushy beard he wore in his council photo, shows the council leader sticking out his tongue with a pointed expression in his stone eyes.

The sculpture, which is around a foot tall, sits perched on the corner of the building at the heart of the dispute, looking down a street in central Trowbridge, a parish with the population of just over 37,000.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/25/builder-erects-sculpture-of-council-leader-as-wiltshire-planning-row-turns-ugly

[Oniomancer]

Going by the news, Uk councils generally lean toward the draconian but this is one of those rare cases where I think I agree with the them.