THE idea of moving a statue of the Duke of Bedford from its current position in Tavistock's Guildhall car park to Bedford Square last week faced a chilly response during a meeting in the town. Cllr Ted Sherrell told members of the town council's properties committee he could see no reason why the statue should be moved. Cllr Sherrell said: 'We are committed to moving the war memorial, but these things cost a lot of money. You can't just shove it on a forklift truck and move it around. 'I can see no rush to do anything along these lines and there are far better things we could be spending our money on, for example, the new youth shelter in the skate park, than moving the Bedford statue.' Cllr Norma Woodcock said the idea was suggested a few years ago and the council had contacted the Bedford family, who had no objection to the statue being moved. She said the proposal had come up when plans to build a new visitor centre near Guildhall car park were still ongoing — the idea being to create a clear area within the car park. However, as grant funding for this project had failed, removing the statue was probably better 'put on the back burner', said Cllr Woodcock. Cllr Iain Andrews said moving the statue had not been included in the budget-setting programme for this year, so it would be at least another 12 months before the council would even consider it. 'Perhaps we should leave him to enjoy semaphore with Sir Francis Drake in Plymouth Road for the time being,' said Cllr Andrews.