Stone pillars in a Douglas memorial garden may have been reprieved from the demolition man’s wrecking ball after a last-minute change of heart at Douglas council.

At an earlier council meeting, councillors voted in favour of demolishing the pillars in the Kaye Memorial Gardens near Summerhill.

The columns had originally supported wooden beams forming a pergola. Questions were then raised about the structural integrity of the columns and experts had advised removing them.

But the advice changed after a subsequent investigation.

Council leader, David Christian, said the original advice was that the pillars were dangerous but added: ’A thorough inspection was not done. It’s disappointing that we did not do a thorough inspection in the first place. They don’t need to be removed but the committee had decided to go ahead anyway. If they are not dangerous why not make a feature of them? It’s an unnecessary expense. I don’t see why we should be spending rates payers’ money to remove something that’s not dangerous.’

Councillor Christian suggested it would make better sense to retain the pillars, creating seating between them and perhaps decorating them with hanging baskets.

Councillors Karen Angela and Jon Joughin both agreed it made sense to retain the pillars.

Regeneration and Community Committee chairman Stephen Pitts said he had asked to see the actual reports but was still waiting.

He told councillors: ’I think the pillars look terrible but if the council wants them to stay, we can wait and see what they look like. First we were told they were dangerous then we were told they were not.’

At a full council meeting, councillors rejected the Regeneration and Community Committee’s proposal to remove the pillars and Councillor Pitts agreed the committee would give it further consideration.