A sculpture in a north Norfolk park, which thousands of children have known all their lives, is to be scrapped because of safety fears.

The carved oak tree (pictured), in North Walsham Memorial Park, has started to rot and is leaning.

North Walsham town councillors spent less than five minutes deciding its fate during their meeting on Tuesday.

Mary Seward said: 'I think nature has eventually taken its course. Sadly I am going to suggest we remove it. I don't want somebody being harmed by the thing.'

In 1998 the 120-year-old tree was diseased and about to be felled when North Walsham Town Council decided instead to commission sculptor Mark Goldsworthy to turn it into a piece of artwork.

He carved many figures standing on each other's shoulders to represent two famous events in North Walsham - the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 and the founding of the Eastern Counties Agricultural Labourers' and Small Holders' Union in 1906.