Shropshire Star features writer Nathan Rous opened up the debate about what constitutes 'art' when he imitated a £1,500 sculpture for a mere £16.50.

Armed with a £20 note, Nathan created his work 'Baleful' by binding together six bales of hay, a wooden pallet and an empty ink barrel - and returned to the Star with change.

The real art

His piece was a similar design to artist Claire Morgan's publicly funded floating sculpture which was described by some as "a pile of peasticks on a pallet".

Claire's work is one half of a £3,000 public art project which is part of a larger £70,000 scheme to bring contemporary art to unusual places in Shropshire.

Nathan's effort

Now Nathan is planning further works - possibly a mock Tracey Emin unmade bed - after letters and e-mails poured in from readers in response his parody.

Nathan said: "It's the silly season and this is good light hearted stuff and good to involve readers.

Construction work

"People feel their council tax money has been thrown down the pan. Money has been thrown at this project, which we feel is a bit misplaced.

"With council tax rises higher than ever people feel they should have a say where their money goes. Money is such a big talking point so we are asking 'should we accept this?'"

Nathan said he had been unable to speak with artist Claire but is planning to follow her work.

He said: "It's not exactly a criticism of her but more a criticism of the system."

Nathan told Star readers: "What really galls me is that so-called contemporary art always costs a fortune. You only have to cast your mind back to 1996 when a Telford traffic island was graced with its very own chunk of scrap metal. And that chunk of metal cost £35,000.

"Created by Oswestry-based artist Mark Evans, it drew so much criticism that it was removed."

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