The unveiling of the Margaret Thatcher statue in Grantham is to be fully-funded upfront by private donations, without any support from South Kesteven District Council.

Council leader Kelham Cooke (Con- Casewick) issued a lunchtime statement saying this, just minutes before the issue was to be raised again at a meeting of the full council, which is due to start at 1pm this afternoon.

His comments come amid much criticism of the council setting aside up to £100,000 to 'underwrite' the event.

Ruling Conservatives on SKDC had always insisted that they could fundraise privately to cover the cost of the event, but it did leave a potential liability of up to £100,000 in the unlikely event no private funding could be found.

This led Deepings Independent councillors to probe how the event might be funded, as previously reported by Nub News.

There then followed a 'head on a spike' art work being erected on the plinth at St Peter's Hill, Grantham, where the statue to be gifted to the council is to be unveiled eventually after the end of the pandemic.

Council leader Kelham Cooke said today: "As you will know we agreed last year as a Council to underwrite the figure of up to £100,000 for the unveiling event of the statue of Baroness Thatcher. This was based on the unveiling to take place in May 2021.

"However, as this has now been delayed until Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted, we now have the time to fundraise all of the funds required prior to the event and therefore no longer need to use any allocation of underwriting or forward funding from South Kesteven District Council.

"This will mean the whole unveiling event and preparations will 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 Councils budget. "

Coun Ashley Baxter (Ind - Market and West Deeping) said 'oh the irony!' after accusing the ruling Conservatives of a U-turn on the potential funding for the unveiling.

He continued: "This is undoubtedly due to the questions asked from me and other Independent and opposition members over the past few weeks. The whole episode has been a 'monumental' waste of time and money."