THE controversial scallop sculpture on the beach at Aldeburgh has been vandalised again, it has emerged.A splattering of red and green paint was spotted on Saturday morning - just hours after the EADT revealed the sculpture would not be relocated.
By Danielle Nuttall
THE controversial scallop sculpture on the beach at Aldeburgh has been vandalised again, it has emerged.
A splattering of red and green paint was spotted on Saturday morning - just hours after the EADT revealed the sculpture would not be relocated.
It is the second time the sculpture, created to honour composer Benjamin Britten's links to one of Suffolk's favourite coastal towns, has been subjected to vandalism.
In January, the sculpture was vandalised with white paint, having only been installed on the beach in the autumn.
A spokesman for Suffolk police confirmed last night a resident had contacted the force at 11am on Saturday to report the sculpture had been vandalised with green and red paint.
"We attended and took details of the crime. We can only assume it happened overnight," he added.
The EADT revealed on Saturday how Suffolk Coastal District Council and Aldeburgh Town Council had agreed that Maggi Hambling's scallop shell tribute should not be moved in spite of a local campaign calling for it to be sited elsewhere.
Ms Hambling described the decision as "terrific news" and said she was relieved.
The striking work had provoked a storm of controversy over the past few months, with residents and visitors both arguing on whether to keep it at its present site in front of a beach car park or to move it elsewhere.
A petition in favour of moving it was started in the town at the end of last year just a few weeks after it was unveiled, and attracted nearly 1,000 signatures.
The EADT ran a readers' poll, in which 2,163 people voted in favour of the shells staying put, and 738 against. Although most were local people, the poll attracted votes from as far as Scotland.
A petition supporting the sculpture's present site set up in response raised more than 1,000 names.
The town council agreed to take the matter up with the district council, and the two sides met last week to discuss what could be done.
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