Glenrothes’ poetry slabs which went missing from shopping centre have been found

The work by artist David Harding has been part of the townscape for decades, and there was anger when they vanished from the fenced-off site before the work to tear down Glenwood Shopping Centre got underway.

But, Fife Council confirmed today they had been found - after being moved to a council facility for safekeeping.

Mr Harding was the town artist for a decade, and made a huge contribution to Glenrothes’ unique use of public art as the new town started to become established.

His slabs feature poetry by Douglas Young, Hugh Macdiarmid and Sydney Goodsir Smith and had been part of the landscape at Glenwood for a number of years. His other work, the Henge, a spiral of cast concrete slabs in Beaufort Drive, and a mural on an underpass called Industry.

With the local authority unaware what had happened to them, Mr Harding told the BBC he was “very upset” at the news his work at Glenwood had disappeared last month.

Police were asked to investigate, and former council lawyer, Andrew Ferguson put up a reward up £100 for their return.

But, several weeks on, the mystery has been solved.

Norman Laird, community manager for the Glenrothes area said: “I’m really pleased that the slabs have been found. They’d been spotted and moved from the site by someone from another council team not involved in the project, who took them to a council facility for safe keeping.

“As soon as we were made aware of their location, we arranged for the slabs to be moved to the council’s archive centre where they’ll be kept until we’re ready to relay them as part of the new development.”

He added: ““We know the affection and pride that Glenrothes has for the town’s public art and people were rightly concerned when the slabs couldn’t be found. Whilst I’m pleased that there’s been a positive outcome, I’m sorry that we couldn’t confirm that they were in safe hands any sooner.

“We’ll review the process for the logging, maintaining and relocating public art in Glenrothes to avoid this happening again.”