COLCHESTER MP Will Quince has said work to install a giant metal elephant sculpture on one of Colchester’s busiest roundabouts should be abandoned.

Plans for the controversial 7.8m tall “wayfinding” statue on the Albert roundabout at Cowdray Avenue were approved in March.

The sculpture is part of a project to fix the link between North Station and the town centre.

Colchester Council, Essex County Council and Greater Anglia have contributed the scheme and £200,000 has been allocated to pay for the elephant, new lighting, landscaping and improved CCTV.

The works were delayed until this month and Mr Quince wrote a letter to Colchester Council leader Mark Cory to find out whether the project had been abandoned. It said: “I ask as I understood you as the portfolio holder, and councillor Martin Goss had signed off the project, despite the widespread criticism and the trees and shrubs were cut down in readiness for the erection of the sculpture. “I live in hope you and councillor Goss have seen sense and have abandoned this wasteful spending.”

Martin Goss, councillor responsible for transport, said the final phase of the link between North Station and the town centre will still go ahead.

He said: “The delay has been around the wiring for lighting and security cameras and that work is being programmed.”