Grantham Thatcher statue: £100k taxpayer fund scrapped

The former prime minister was born in 1925 in Grantham and died in April 2013, aged 87

Plans to use £100,000 of taxpayer cash to underwrite an unveiling ceremony for a statue of Margaret Thatcher in her home town have been scrapped.

South Kesteven District Council had agreed to set aside funding for the event in Grantham in 2021, with hopes donated money would recuperate costs.

But the matter was put before a scrutiny committee after criticism.

The Conservative-led authority said delays caused by the pandemic had now given enough time to raise the money.

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During a meeting of the full council on Monday, Conservative councillor Adam Stokes said the decision not to allocate £100,000 for the unveiling from the authority's local priorities reserve would be confirmed at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Opposition councillors had forced the leadership into reviewing the decision and revealing a breakdown of the costs, including an estimated £50,200 on an external events organisation and £24,250 on public safety, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Council leader Kelham Cooke said the unveiling event and preparations for it would now be "privately funded through donations without the need for any underwriting or forward funding for this event and the funding for this will be removed from the council's budget".

The bronze 10ft (3m) statue of Margaret Thatcher, which was offered to the council after proposals to house it in Parliament Square were rejected, is due to be erected in Grantham later this year, but a date is yet to be fixed.

The council agreed to put it on a 10ft (3m) high plinth to prevent vandalism, making the entire structure more than 20ft (6m) high overall.