Plans for George Michael statues hit double trouble among local residents
Fans of the pop star want a statue outside his Oxfordshire home and another beside his former London mansion, but residents oppose the plans.
Plans to honour the late George Michael with a £100,000 statue outside his former property in Oxfordshire have stalled.
A plan to erect a life-size bronze statue of the singer in the village of Goring-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, where he was found dead aged 53 on Christmas Day 2016, have stalled.
The council rejected plans, along with a concert, as "not thorough enough" to be given the green light and warned locals do not want any large tributes to the star, the Mirror reported.
Michael lived in Mill Cottage in the village of 3,200 residents from 1999.
Fans want to install a bronze sculpture of the singer seated on a bench in the village high street, in a similar pose the singer adopted on the cover of his 2004 album Patience.
Supporters of the plan have already commissioned concept drawings from the artist Andrew Sinclair, whose sculpture of David Bowie, who died aged 69 on January 2016, will be installed in Aylesbury, Bucks, where the singer first performed as Ziggy Stardust.
However, a second memorial outside the singer's former north London home in Highgate, has also caused problems among neighbours.
Michael had a Grade II-listed house in the area, which is also home to such celebrities as chef Jamie Oliver and actor Jude Law.
Following the death of the singer, fans have left a range of tributes that include flowers, cards a guitar, photographs and poems outside the property. The ad hoc memorial is visited by dozens of fans every day, and is tended to by devoted fans who call themselves 'George's lovelies'.
The chair of the Highgate Society planning committee said there was "considerable concern about the state of the current shrine" among residents of the area, but it was not something the committee could address.
The Highgate Society added: "There have been, and still are, a number of prominent residents in Highgate and it is difficult to favour one individual over others."
Susan Rose, chair of the Highgate Conservation Area advisory Committee, commented in December 2017 what Michael "would think of it all outside the beautiful home that he looked after so well".
The star's fans have raised a petition in a bid to replace the memorial in London with a second statue, but this stalled, after Michael's family suggested the singer would have found the tribute "embarrassing".
