Putting cones on statues is in good humour but a safety hazard, says councillor

People in Edinburgh have been warned against putting traffic cones on top of statues, as it could pose a safety hazard.

A senior city councillor admitted the trend, made famous by a statue in Glasgow, was in “good humour” but said it should not spread elsewhere in Scotland.

Cones have begun to appear upon statues around the city in recent days, in an echo of the trend in Glasgow.

The equestrian statue of the same duke at Waterloo Place in Edinburgh sported three traffic cones on Friday morning: one on the Duke’s head, another on the horse’s head and another on the horse’s raised foreleg.

Other statues in Edinburgh, including those of Adam Smith and Sherlock Holmes, have also been “coned”.

The traffic cone tradition is most associated with the statue of the Duke of Wellington outside the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow.

Since the late 1980s, a cone has been atop the statue’s head and it has been persistently replaced whenever it is removed.

When Scotland fans travelled en masse to the US for the World Cup, the Tartan Army chose to decorate statues in Boston and Miami with cones in a similar way.

Boston’s mayor, Michelle Wu, took to the practice and even put a cone on a statue herself.

However, the City of Edinburgh Council has said work has been ongoing to remove the cones which have popped up around the city.

Edinburgh’s transport and environment convener, Stephen Jenkinson, said: “Whilst I’m sure these have been put up in good humour and with the best intentions, we need to consider the safety of the public above all.

“Unsecured traffic cones could potentially cause injury or present a road safety hazard, which is why they’ve been removed.

“I think we can all agree that there is only one statue in Scotland that has truly immortalised the cone, so I’d urge people to not attempt any imitations.”