He has been an icon of the British seaside for more than a century – but now Skegness’s carefree Jolly Fisherman has run into a storm of trouble with health-and-safety officials.
The gambolling seaman famously appeared with arms joyously outstretched on classic posters above the slogan: ‘Skegness is SO bracing.’
But now council officials have decreed that a new statue of the much-loved character must have his arms reined in.
‘Unfortunately, we can’t have the fisherman with his arms outstretched because there is an issue with health and safety,’ explained Lincolnshire County Council’s ward member for Skegness, Ken Miller.
‘People would try to clamber all over it and if someone fell off or if one of the statue’s arms broke, then we would be the ones to take the blame and that is too big a risk.’
And to complete their health and safety vigilance, the council has removed the Jolly Fisherman’s pipe, for fear it would encourage smoking.
The statue, due to be built next spring, will be located outside Skegness railway station as part of a £750,000 refurbishment.
But outraged locals say the county council’s design – depicting the stationary fisherman holding a beachball, with his other arm by his side patting a seal pup – looks more like a garden gnome than the iconic figure on posters fondly hung in thousands of homes.
‘When a photograph of the proposal was passed around at a council meeting, people were in hysterics laughing at how bad it is,’ said Skegness Civic Society chairman Steve Kirk.
‘The Jolly Fisherman is a symbol of the town and people are proud of it. But this image looks like a gargoyle and will become a laughing stock.’
And Skegness mayor Mark Anderson added: ‘The statue looks like a garden gnome. We are known for a being a jolly seaside town but we are being dictated to by health-and-safety rules.
‘The fisherman is an icon and we are mightily upset that he’s being changed in case some drunk idiot decides to hang from his arms and falls off or hurts themselves.
‘We have told the county council to go back to the drawing board. The town council holds copyright of the image so nothing will go ahead without our approval.’
But the county council remains unmoved. ‘Nowadays, people will sue at the drop of a hat and the council cannot afford to be fighting legal claims for negligence,’ said Mr Miller. ‘We are aware that some people are unhappy with its appearance so we may have to refine it but even then it will not have outstretched arms.’
Celebrated poster artist John Hassall drew the picture in 1908 after being commissioned by Great Northern Railways to promote travelling to Skegness by rail. He was paid 12 guineas for his work. In 2008, the Queen sent a letter to the resort to mark the 100th anniversary of the town’s mascot.
Mr Hassall’s original hangs in Skegness town hall and was formally given to the town by British Railways, along with the copyright, in 1966. Mr Hassall died in 1948, 80 years old and penniless.
The new statue has been commissioned by Lincolnshire County Council and funded jointly by the European Regional Development Fund, Network Rail’s National Stations Improvement Programme, East Midlands Trains and Lincolnshire County Council.
Beat this for stupidity on the taxpayers quid!
Beat this for stupidity on the taxpayers quid!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”