THE hand of the woman in Blackburn town centre’s ‘Grandmother and Child’ statue has been repaired.

The statue opposite Blackburn Railway Station was said to have been damaged back in September, much to the dismay of passers-by.

It is not known exactly how or when the woman’s hand became unattached from her body, but it was still grasping the little’s boys arms, who is desperate to pick up his teddy.

But the bronze statue has now been fixed and put back into its place following a promise from Blackburn with Darwen council bosses to fix it.

The restoration work to repair the statue at the Cathedral Quarter was done by Rob Jones and Terry Ingram from Castle fine arts foundry.

The £25,000 work, sculpted by Alan Wilson from Henley-on-Thames, was moved from one end of Blackburn Cathedral Garden near Church Street to the other, opposite Blackburn Railway station and near the new bus/train interchange.

The statue was resited as part of the £34million Cathedral Quarter development in 2015.

Cllr Suleman Khonat, who represents the town centre area of Blackburn on Blackburn with Darwen council, said he was ‘pleased’ the statue had been fixed.

He said: “I’m pleased that work has been done to repair the statue.

“I’ve had quite a few complaints from constituents about this.

“It’s things like the statue that make this borough, so its nice to see it fixed.

Cllr Khonat called for more CCTV to clamp down on vandalism around the town centre.

He said: “Vandalism costs the taxpayer a lot of money and there was no need for the damage to this statue.

“I would urge anyone who does see incidents of vandalism to report it.

“I would be grateful for more CCTV to be installed to cover the area around the railway station and town centre.

“Then if there’s ever an incident, it will be covered by the CCTV and hopefully act as a deterrence and avoid things like this happening again in Blackburn town centre."