Leon Dinosaur is on his death bed and I for one am very angry about the neglect he is suffering

I visited our dinosaur this morning and found him ill, TERMINALLY ILL and suffering from NEGLECT !

CLICK HERE for my blog post from 13^th November. The number of friends who have been reading my blogs over the past week as I prepare for the writing project IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAMMY LEON runs into thousands. THANK YOU and THANK YOU to the facebook groups who have allowed me to share this project within their forums.

Leonasaurus is on his death bed.

First of all as I approached the iconic sculpture it looked to me as if he had been on a day trip to Bristol the world’s capital of scruffy graffiti !  Who ever thought this was an appropriate costume for Leonasaurus to wear !

I last saw our dinosaur in the summer of 2019 when all was well. Now preparing to write IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAMMY LEON celebrating the heritage of Greater Bletchley I revisited as part of placing our dinosaur firmly in a footstep of heritage.

If you visit the Peartree Bridge Dinosaur you will find a simply notice of heritage explaining this is the work of our late community artist Bill Billings. My thinking was to have something similar for Leonasaurus.

The dinosaur was Leon School Headmaster Bruce Abbott’s idea. He delegated it  to me to project manage. It was Bill Billings and the Leon Students of 1991/1992 who made it happen. I DO NOT want my name on any plaque but IDO WANT Bruce Abbott and Bill Billings to be acknowledged.

Leonasaurus is thirty years old but  unless something is done as a matter of urgency he will vanish from sight.

Not only is our dinosaur covered in this hideous graffiti which presumably somebody considers to be art but that “art” can not cover up the crumbling exterior. Just look at the pictures with chunks of concrete falling away !  Look at the beer cans thrown into the fenced area !

As I began this project I hoped that I would find Leonasaurus was in the care of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council who I am sure would support the heritage plaque idea I wish to put forward. Sadly I now understand this terminal lack of care for our beloved icon is within Milton Keynes Council !   Milton Keynes Council and its three ring political circus of jugglers, acrobats and clowns. I will be advising the council members covering the area in which our dinosaur is located but I will most certainly not be holding my breath !

Yes I am angry and I hope my anger is coming out in this blog !  I am angry that the work of Bruce Abbott, Bill Billings and Leonite Students is being treated with such disrespect. I  am angry that this yet again a failure on the part of Milton Keynes Council. Passionate as I am about our heritage, something I have been writing about for more than thirty years, I am angry that this icon of heritage is about to vanish from our community !

I will leave my anger there !