Tortoise and hare sculptures take over the town

Keech Hospice Care's Short Tail Trail includes 90 sculptures

Nearly 100 animal sculptures painted by professional artists and community groups have been scattered around a town as part of a charity trail.

The brightly-coloured tortoises and hares have been dotted around Luton town centre, Wardown Park and Stockwood Park by Keech Hospice Care.

For 10 weeks, families are being encouraged to use an app to solve clues leading them to each animal on The Short Tail Trail.

After that, the 60 smaller sculptures will be given to the community groups and schools that designed them while the 30 larger sculptures will be sold to raise money for the hospice.

The tortoises and hares can be found in Luton for the next 10 weeks

In 2021 a smaller initiative with elephant sculptures raised £230,000 for Keech Hospice Care.

The smaller animals have been designed at local schools, the University of Bedfordshire and charities such as youth project The Feast.

Artists such as comedian Olaf Falafel have painted the large sculptures.

Liz Searle, CEO of Keech Hospice Care, said: "It’s fantastic to see the hares and tortoises brightening up the town centre and surrounds this summer.

"So many of the sculptures created by our partnering schools and community groups share positive messages of love, hope, inclusion and peace, which is wonderful to see and a sign of our town’s strong community spirit.”