A statue of Chingford-raised Harry Kane that has been hidden in storage for years has finally been pictured.
Under the headline ‘Waste of money or fitting tribute?’, The Big Issue magazine has published a series of pictures of an the England captain sitting on a bench in football kit while resting a ball on his knee.
In 2019 and 2020, two Conservative councillors for Chingford’s Endlebury ward allocated £7,200 in Waltham Forest Council’s “community ward funding” for a statue of the then-Spurs striker.
But it is yet to find a home.
Councillors Emma Best and Roy Berg wished to put the likeness at Chingford station before being blocked by TfL safety concerns.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service last month, Cllr Best said she has spent “hours and hours” trying to agree a home for the statue with “stakeholders”.
The statue for using Waltham Forest Council’s community ward funding, an annual grant of up to £10,000 for “local initiatives, projects or improvements” that councillors in each of the borough’s wards share out.
The funds for the statue came from a pot of about £6,600 allocated to Cllrs Best and Berg’s Endlebury ward every year.
Local resident Trevor Calver uncovered the existence of the statue after checking how funding for Endlebury ward was being spent.
