THE Malvern Gazette’s bid to find the perfect home for a statue of London Olympic mascot ‘Wenlock’ has sprinted out of the blocks.

A town businessman has bought the statue, one of 84 individually created to celebrate this summer’s Olympics and Paralympics, and wants to place it somewhere prominent where it can be enjoyed by local children.

Since revealing this news, our inbox has been flooded with bids from venues across the county keen to give “Sherlock Wenlock” a home.

The anonymous buyer was surprised and delighted to receive a positive response, and he is now floating the chance the statue may go “on tour”.

“It’s certainly given me lots of choice, far more than I expected,” he said.

The story also attracted the attention of one special reader in Warrington, Cheshire.

Artist Fiona Osborne designed and painted the statue with her husband Neil and was delighted to read of the plans for it on our website.

She plans to pass on a timelapse video of the statue being painted to its new owner.

There is still time to apply if you are interested in hosting the statue, which needs to be moved to Malvern by the middle of this month. To express your interest, e-mail Tarik Al Rasheed on ta@malvern gazette.co.uk.