Adele Teale has been ordered to remove the 4ft gorilla statue attached to the front of her property by Wakefield Council as it is ‘out-of-character with the surrounding area’
Adele Teale, a 58-year-old homeowner who is passionate about gorillas, is locked in a dispute with her local council after being told to remove a four-foot-tall gorilla statue from the front of her house.
The resin figure, which weighs 4kg and was installed outside her two-bedroom terraced home last year, has become a popular attraction among locals.
However, Wakefield Council has now informed the mother-of-one that her beloved gorilla, whom she has named Caesar, is “out-of-character with the surrounding area” and must be removed.
A baffled Adele said: “I just don’t understand what the issue is. He is nothing more than a garden ornament. He is secure up there – he has been screwed and glued in place.
“The council says it’s ‘structural’ but he can be taken down – I could put a Christmas tree up there if I wanted. I own the house, it’s mine, so surely I can have whatever I want outside to decorate it.”
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“My neighbours don’t have an issue with it and passers by stop to look and talk about it all the time. Kids love to come by to see Caesar.”
Adele also shared that Caesar had been positioned outside her previous home in Belle Isle, Leeds, for 15 years without any issues before she sold him when she moved to Stanley, Wakefield, five years ago, reports the Daily Star.
After buying him back for £600 in August last year, Adele repositioned Caesar on a wooden platform between the upstairs windows of her two-bedroom terraced house in December. However, on 27 May, she received a letter from Wakefield Council Planning Services following a complaint about an “animal structure” on her property.
The council “advised” in the letter that she should remove Caesar under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, suggesting she might have needed planning permission to erect him.
The letter also asked Adele to get in touch with the council within a week so they could assess whether she needed to submit a retrospective planning application.
Adele said she attempted to contact the council several times by phone but claims she “never heard back”.
On 10 July 2025, an enforcement notice was issued to Adele, ordering her to remove Caesar, which she appealed against a month later on 11 August. The notice stated that the statue is “not a minor decorative feature but is a prominent, eye-catching structure and is out of character with the surrounding area”.
It further claimed that it’s an “obtrusive feature on the residential street” and “fails to respect the character and appearance of the surrounding area”. It also alleged that since a planning application had not been submitted, an assessment to determine if the benefits outweigh the harm to the greenbelt could not be made.
Despite the council’s claims that Caesar has “caused harm to the greenbelt” and “has made a negative effect on the areas landscape”, Adele, who works for Leeds City Council’s passenger travel, dismisses these allegations, insisting he is merely a “garden ornament”. She also revealed that she never encountered any objections when she lived in Leeds.
The mum declared: “It was on the outside wall of my house for years and there wasn’t ever any problem. I just really don’t understand what the issue is now we’ve moved here.”
She fondly recalled acquiring her cherished gorilla statue: “I got him from a pet supplies store in 2005 – he just stood out to me, I just thought he was beautiful. I was gutted when I sold him so I called the lady who bought him back up two days later asking if I could be first in line to buy him back if she ever wanted to sell him.”
Expressing her love for gorillas, she stated: “I love gorillas, I think they’re amazing and Caesar makes me smile – he makes me happy.” Adele, who resides with her husband Trevor and son Billy, noted that even the binmen have grown fond of Caesar. “They shout ‘Save Caesar’.”
She defended her choice of garden decoration, asserting: “I think he looks amazing. I can’t see what harm it’s doing and I really don’t want to take it down – it’s just an ornament after all.”
However, Joe Jenkinson, Wakefield Council’s Service Director for Planning, Transportation and Strategic Highways, offered a different viewpoint: “We appreciate that not everyone will agree, but under planning rules this is not classed as a minor decorative feature.”
He added: “It’s also out of character with the surrounding area. So, it requires planning permission.”
Jenkinson clarified the current status of the situation, saying: “As an appeal has already been made, the notice has not taken effect and will only do so if the appeal is dismissed.”
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