Art Fury

When the flying fickle finger of fate decided to hoist Cate Watkinson's Total Policing (2011) into place outside the new HQ of Northumbria Police on the same day that staff were told the authority needed to axe up to 450 jobs to save £34 million on its budget, staff were furious. This oversized steel ball bearing in a glass hoop cost a mere £50,000, peanuts compared with the £27 million the new HQ cost, but this is clearly wasted money - when you've seen one ball bearing you've seen them all - and, as Tesco keeps telling us "Every little helps". Isn't it time Government banned councils from wasting public money on daft art projects such as this? £50,000 would pay two library assistants' salaries for a year and leave cash for books.