A STATUE which has divided opinion in Denbigh for more than a decade will stay where it is after a public vote resulted in overwhelming support for the bronze figure.

The statue of famous explorer Sir Henry Morton (HM) Stanley) was commissioned by Denbigh Town Council more than ten years ago, with North Wales artist Nick Elphick creating the scuplture.

However, Stanley’s association with European imperialism led to protests sparked by Black Lives Matters in 2020.

Earlier this month, a public consultation on the hotly debated future of the statue, located outside the town library, took place more than a year after it was promised due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After a raft of protests last year, activists called for the effigy of arguably the town’s most famous son to be removed.

Denbigh Town Council held a meeting in June 2020 to discuss its future. Members voted 6-5 to keep it in lieu of a public consultation on whether to retain it long-term or move it from the wider public’s gaze.

However, Mayor at the time of the debate, Cllr Gaynor Wood-Tickle, promised people in Denbigh a “democratic vote” and full public consultation on the matter.

On October 15 and 16 of this year, locals casted their votes to end the uncertainty surrounding the statue for good.

During a full council meeting held tonight (Wednesday, October 27), Denbigh Town Council confirmed that the statue would be staying where it is - outside the town library.

That follows, firstly a questionnaire filled out by 69 people (of which 62 were in favour of keeping the statue where it is).

When the questionnaire asked; 'If the statue was to be moved, where should it be moved to?', the majority of those opposing suggested it be relocated to Denbigh Museum.

That was then followed by the public vote which saw 592 Denbigh residents cast their votes on where the statue would end up.

471 people voted in favour of keeping the statue where it is, with 121 wanting it removed - meaning that 79.6% of those who voted were in favour of seeing it stay put.

What is perhaps disappointing though is the fact that just 8.8% of the 6,725 Denbigh residents eligible to vote on the matter, turned out to do so.

Denbigh Town Mayor Cllr Rhys Thomas gave thanks to the town councillors for 'taking on this task and seeing it through to its conclusion'.

Cllr Dyfrig Berry suggested that further historical information should be added to accompany the statue in future.

Journalist and explorer HM Stanley is synonymous with the phrase “Dr Livingstone, I presume”, after finding the Scottish explorer who had been lost in central Africa.

Stanley, born John Rowlands, started life fatherless in Denbigh in 1841 and was put into the Asaph workhouse in nearby St Asaph.

He emigrated to the United States as a teenager, where he reinvented himself.

He fought in the American Civil war, became a journalist and then a noted explorer – finding the source of the Nile, mapping central Africa’s Great Lakes and also the borders of the present day Democratic Republic of Congo.

Stanley is controversial to some because of links with Belgian King Leopold II, for whom he worked for a time and his own alleged treatment of indigenous workers and guides.

The monarch committed acts of appalling inhumanity against the population of the Congo Free State – now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

However his supporters say Stanley was not working for the Belgian despot when the atrocities occurred and he has been unfairly tainted.