CONSERVATIVE councillors in Blackburn and Darwen were accused of being "obsessed with bottoms and the human body" in a debate over public art in the borough.

Labour Coun Sue Reid made the accusation as Tory councillors lined up to criticise policies which have seen a steel beehive unveiled on a motorway junction in the borough with a statue of a naked man face down to be unveiled soon.

The metal beehive was unveiled during the spring on a roundabout leading to the Shadsworth estate while the naked man, carving the borough crest into the ground, is currently still being created at the junction of the Lower Eccleshill link road and the M65.

Former leader of the Conservative group Coun Jim Hirst, said: "The public are laughing at us paying for trivial rubbish like this."

Tory Coun Fred Slater added: "Just exactly whose public art strategy is this? It is the strategy of a very small group of people on this council.

"We are going to have a male backside sticking up into the air. People coming in to Blackburn will just see it as as absolutely ridiculous.

"Nobody has been consulted. We should have had something that depicted the history and tradition of this town, perhaps from the cotton or wallpaper industry. "As it is, there is going to be graffiti everywhere. Surely we can do better with tax payers money than this." Liberal Democrat Coun Paul Browne, joined Conservatives in criticising the strategy, but Labour Coun Sue Reid laughed off their complaints.

She said: "You seem to have a complete obsession with the human body and bottoms. People in the 16th century had more idea about public art than you.

"If it had been down to you you'd have put up something like a spinning jenny."

Coun Andy Kay joined other Labour councillors and said the whole point of art was that whether it is good or not is in the eye of the beholder and its aim is to provoke debate and interest.

He said the statues of the granny and the child in the Boulevard had prompted controversy at the time it was unveiled, but was very soon accepted.

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