Tide Turns in Favour of Gormley’s Iron Men

By Ian Herbert

In the two years since they were first dotted around a beach on Merseyside, Antony Gormley’s collection of 100 cast-iron men have been prodded, climbed on, dressed in football shirts and awarded yellow testicles by a man with a tin of gloss paint. Yesterday, they were simply serving as a picnic spot and a goal post: proof, if it were needed, that they are part of the furniture on Crosby beach.

The locals’ acceptance of the lonely sea-gazers, each made from a mould of Gormley’s own body, is reflected in a decision by Sefton Council’s planning committee that they should stay indefinitely. Five months ago, the same committee announced that the statues would be sent packing so that Crosby could, in the words of one councillor, "get its beach back".

Though the initial decision met with derision from Gormley and most of the local art community, the vote on Wednesday night was still close – nine votes to five – and was greeted with shouts of "it’s a disgrace" by protesters as they left.

Gormley, who was in attendance at Bootle town hall, looked understandably bewildered. He remains a legend in the North-east, where his Angel of the North kick-started a regeneration process of which Crosby, with more than 700,000 visitors to the Another Place installation, is witnessing the modest beginnings.

Gormley, who after the initial council vote had fumed over the "small minds in some grey zone of human experience wanting to deny the unusual", did his best to understand the doubters who confronted him in Bootle. "I think a lot of them thought I was going to get wealthy on this and that I was going to turn away from tonight a millionaire," he said. "But unfortunately they don’t know about how the art business works. It’s not going to make me a millionaire. I wish it would. But I think I have to a make a few more pieces before that happens.

"I’m a sailor and I understand that people feel their ability to use coastal waters is being diminished. I understand how people get passionate about places where they spend a lot of time. But I do not believe the loss is as great as they’re saying."

For many of those on the beach yesterday, the decision was the right one. "They’re serene," said Marjorie Dawson, 41. "To me, they’re doing what I want to do at the beach – thinking, dreaming, gazing out."

Steph Fisher, 21, was a kindred spirit. "It’s hard to believe that when they get something good around here people want to get rid of it.

Yet safety concerns were central for some councillors including Jack Colbert, who voted against them. "I just hope there’s no accidents," Mr Colbert told Gormley outside the committee room. "I’ve saved people myself on that beach and I am not reassured [of ] the safety of keeping the statues permanently at that site."

Ian McKay, who represented windsurfers, sea anglers and sailors, insisted: "People who venture out to look at the statues could put their lives at risk, leading to a fatality."

The Maritime and Coast-guard Agency also opposed a council report backing the statues, arguing that they increased the risk of people wandering into soft sand and mud and becoming stuck as the tide encroached. To address such concerns, 19 of the statues will be moved – 13 from near a coastguard station, and three to create new emergency access.

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