SO Hill33 is to be given a stay of execution........ and a new fence. Unfortunately, those involved also seem to have extended their creative remit to include artistic licence when it comes to describing this sorry state of affairs. The artist, David Cotterrell, for example, said it had "been designed to find its natural angle of repose", but was doing so more quickly than he had anticipated. While Paul Harper, of the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust, said "in our opinion what is happening is consistent with the artist's vision". The reality, of course, is that Hill33 is not behaving as envisaged at all; it's subsiding much faster, and much further than expected, and it's also buckling – causing some of the steel mesh baskets holding the stone in place to break.

In June, the Forestry Commission reported that the Trust had decided to remove the structure, and I do not believe that they were misinformed at the time. Given what this structure cost, however, removal would certainly be very controversial and it seems the Trust have now taken a strategic decision to back away from controversy, by letting it 'fall down artistically'. It's a process that will, in all probability, take many years and quite possibly time will dull the memory that Gloucestershire Environmental Trust, the Forestry Commission and our own district council bankrolled this folly to the tune of £30,000.

What won't change, however, is the fact that falling over is the only interesting attribute this pile of dirt has ever had. It was rubbish when it was built; now it's rubbish and it's leaning. I've never heard a good word said about it from anyone who's seen it, and it's pretty clear that the installation has utterly failed to capture the public's imagination. Just as troubling, though, is the question of why, even now we've reached the point where the thing has sunk to its knees, does the Sculpture Trust continue to gush about its merits when it's obvious to just about everyone, that it doesn't have any?

Shauna Gwynne

Whitecroft