I WAS interested to read the comments by D Howard in the letters pages of Thursday 16th November, regarding the Sea Sculpture located on Poole Quay, created by Sir Antony Caro.

Years ago, as a ward councillor for this area, I suggested that the council should seek an estimate of value from a local scrap merchant. This was intended to gain a sum of money for other services. The huge amount of money needed in removing the statue so that work could be completed on servicing the facility on which it had been sited was clearly one that could not be sustained. I was called a philistine at the time and my comments were clearly rejected.

I strongly believed that the placing of a metal treble clef next to the water and calling it Sea Music was an excellent idea, albeit an obvious one, but one which we should welcome from a renowned sculptor. However, this was built above a facility that would require on-going maintenance which meant that the sculpture would require to be removed and serviced at fairly regular intervals.

The cost of £235,000 to do this at the present day flies in the face of local gbovernment cutbacks. Toilet closures, increased car parking charges, cutbacks in services across the board do not sit well with such an expenditure.

I am acutely aware of cuts in social care funding at a time when funding should be on the increase and wonder why a sculpture on Poole Quay is being given priority over our vulnerable and elderly residents of Poole.

CHRIS BULTEEL

Mount Road, Poole