Councillor ‘physically abused’ by colleague

A HENLEY town councillor has claimed she was “physically abused” by another member.

Sam Evans made the allegation during Tuesday night’s full council meeting.

It came in response to a comment made by Gill Dodds from the public gallery who asked if the town’s bronze mermaid was due to be reinstated.

The 6ft 6in sculpture, which stood on a plinth on Red Lion lawn, has been in storage since it was vandalised and thrown into the river in November 2017.

Mrs Dodds, of Greys Road, Henley, said it had been several years since the sculpture had first been installed. She added: “The red tops don’t have page three and we have the Me Too movement. I have always thought this mermaid was a particularly tacky thing and I hope it won’t be put back.”

Mrs Dodds, a former mayor, said she didn’t want to look across the river at a “nubile figure with breasts” and hoped the mermaid will be returned to her “watery grave” in the River Thames.

But Councillor Evans replied later in the meeting, saying: “Me Too is about the physical abuse of women. I’ve been physically abused by one of the councillors sitting around this table.

“Me Too is about protecting and preventing women being abused in the future. To compare the beauty of art to disgusting physical abuse is beyond me to be honest.” Councillor Evans, a Conservative, was speaking at her last council meeting after stepping down after eight years following elections held on Thursday.

She told the meeting more than £1,300 had been raised from a crowdfunding campaign to have the mermaid re-installed after it was gifted to the council by the Noor Foundation. She thanked resident Michaela Clarke for running the campaign.

Councillor Evans said: “The comments on the crowdfunding site and on social media, and also many people I talked to in the town, they are really looking forward to the return of the mermaid.

“I look forward to her re-installment and please God these vandals will never have the opportunity to do anything to her again.”

The 370lb statue, which was designed by French artist Amaryllis Bataille, was loaned to the council in 2013 by a German company named Koh i Noor. It was offered in 2012, prompting conflicting opinion as to whether the town should accept it. It was supposed to be sold for at least 15,000 euros (£12,800) after five years, with a share of the proceeds going to charity, and replaced with another piece but the owners said they wanted the council to buy it after it was vandalised.

They first wanted £8,800 minus the salvage costs then reduced their request to 5,000 euros, about £4,455, which the council agreed to try to crowdfund online.

The statue was retrieved by experts from Cook Piling, of Hurley, which sets up the royal regatta course every year.

Ama is the name given to the Japanese and Korean women divers, or “ladies of the sea”, who collect pearls. Henley was one of 20 locations around the world chosen to have a statue as a “place of beauty near water”.