1,000 signatures but Gresley grandson tells us: duck off

The petition now has over 1,000 signatures, thank you so much for your support. The piece on Friday's Today programme on Radio 4 gave a real boost to the campaign, which is still also going great guns on Twitter (see @GresleyDuck and #savetheduck). The Gresley Society have refused to talk to the media in the last month or so, but Sir Nigel's elder grandson Tim Godfrey broke cover yesterday in an extraordinary interview with the Scotsman newspaper, in which he was somewhat less than gracious about all the public interest in the statue. He also seems to be under a number of misapprehensions about the statue project that may explain his apparent implacability. He most certainly does not want the mallard on the statue of his grandfather. If you'd like to read the article (and it is worth reading, particularly if you are interested in how not to do PR), the link is below but please bear in mind the following: 1. the statue is not being funded by Gresley Society members as Mr Godfrey asserts. (Last we heard, members had contributed less than 5% of the £95k required. The Society is trying to raise the balance from pubic donations) 2. the Gresley Society's governing body (the 'Council') approved the original man and mallard statue design before July 2014, when planning consent was sought. The Council only voted to remove the mallard, as far as we can make out, when Mr Godfrey and his brother objected in March 2015. The Council vote was not unanimous. The three Council members that had been tasked with running the project resigned in protest at the decision to remove the mallard. 3. the mallard was chosen to accompany Sir Nigel because....well you know why, so does everyone, apart from My Godfrey it seems! Don't forget Gresley also bred wildfowl. Here is the link to the article http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/design-dispute-over-memorial-to-scots-rail-pioneer-1-3760710 There is a list of all the media coverage we know about on the campaign website, as well as lots of other information, so please do have a look at www.gresleyduck.org If you have any suggestions for promoting the campaign, I would be very pleased to hear from you (libbyranzetta@gmail.com) Thanks again #savetheduck Libby