Tributes paid to Russo’s iconic Lego Men after council orders removal

Loughborough residents have left tributes to the Lego Men on Leopold Street after the council washed them away yesterday.

Raffaele Russo, owner of letting agency Loc8Me and Pizza Pizzeria, was forced to remove all his iconic works by Charnwood Borough Council earlier this month.

Mr Russo initially refused to obey the order and thousands of locals signed an e-petition to keep the street art, but the council went through with the removal yesterday.

Works on the underground train in Ashby Square as well as near to the Carillon Court car park entrance were also whitewashed.

But Mr Russo is in an ongoing negotiation with the council  to re-house his Lego Men and said they might appear in a new location sometime soon.

He told the Loughborough Echo: ‘We have said that [the council] are not really listening to the community because we have had a lot of support from people but we have proposed to rehouse them somewhere else.

“We are going to go for planning permission for the rest of the street art and they are making us move the Lego Men. That was a middle ground solution.

“They were washed off today and the man that did it was abused about 300 times I think!

“He even had little kids coming up to him saying ‘you’re mean!’.”

After the removal, devoted residents left heartfelt tributes where the Lego Men once stood.

Keeping the memory alive with pictures isn’t enough for Mr Russo, who added: “We are hoping that they can be rehoused at the Carillon entrance, there is space there where they could possibly go near the other pieces.”