Cllr David Snowdon (Conservative, Millwall Ward) on Tuesday evening led opposition to Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s plans to sell off Tower Hamlets’ Henry Moore ‘Old Flo’ statue. He presented a ‘call in’ to the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which asked Mayor Lutfur Rahman to think again about his controversial decision to sell ‘Old Flo’.
The Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed with Cllr Snowdon’s ‘call in’ and sent the decision back to the Mayor to re-consider this decision at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening (tonight). “This is a victory” said Cllr Snowdon “Two years ago the Council voted unanimously to move the statue back to Tower Hamlets, but the Mayor seems determined to ignore the wishes of Councillors and local residents. All eyes will be on the Mayor on Wednesday evening. Will he listen?”
Cllr Snowdon continued “Mayor Rahman claims that it is not possible to find a location in Tower Hamlets to put ‘Old Flo’. That is simply not true. The Museum of London in Docklands has offered ‘Old Flo’ a new home.” The proposals from the Museum of London would enable the statue to be hosted in a public place in the Borough at no cost to the taxpayer.
“And this is not the only offer which has come to light in recent days” added Cllr Tim Archer, who sits on the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, “but the Cabinet papers failed to make any mention of any of these options. The Mayor needs to look again at both his decision, which was wrong, and how he reached his decision”.
The Conservatives are calling for a full investigation into why so little was done by Tower Hamlets Council to prepare to bring the Sculpture back to Tower Hamlets after Full Council voted to bring ‘Old Flo’ back to the Borough in 2010.