OUTRAGE: Susan Hitching with her sculpture.

A SHARP-edged modern sculpture outside historic Winchester Cathedral has fallen foul of safety regulations.

Susan Hitching's metal work of art, which took two months to make and cost £600, has been fenced off with green netting in a bid to prevent injuries to the public.

An outraged Ms Hitching, 45, said: "I totally realise the steel pieces of the sculpture are dangerous, but the netting is flapping in the wind and looks unsightly.

"It also distorts the whole sculp-ture by fencing the steel part of the sculpture from the wooden buttresses."

She added: "A passer-by has even asked if the netting was part of the sculpture.

"I can't really blame him, as there is green netting over the cathedral while building work goes on."

She is now hoping to persuade cathedral chiefs to tighten up the fence or make it bigger so that it encompasses the whole of the sculpture.

Ms Hitching, from Sparsholt, near Winchester, has used railway sleepers to echo the flying buttresses of the cathedral in her work, entitled Procession.

The piece is about festive celebrations that resound throughout time - May Day, the harvest and other ritualistic events that historically tie man to land.

The cathedral authorities referred Daily Echo inquiries to its receiver-general, who was unavailable for comment.

Ms Hitching has been sponsored by Anglian Steel 2000, which cut the metal for her sculpture, Wessex tutors and Sparsholt College.

She is one of five artists who are displaying at the sculpture exhibition at the cathedral's Inner Close until July 6.

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