A landmark statue celebrating Dudley’s proud industrial achievements has become a target for pranksters and vandals who are costing the borough’s taxpayers hundreds of pounds in clean-up bills.

White and yellow paint was daubed on the bronze statue of the Heroic Worker in the latest of a string of attacks. Council workers were called out to clean up the statue after the damage was reported yesterday. The landmark stands on Cinder Bank island, on Dudley’s Southern Bypass.

The bronze man is a symbol is for all the workers in the past who helped create Dudley’s wealth.

It forms the centrepiece of an artwork depicting the borough’s industrial heritage and stands next to three gigantic steel cut-out silhouette wedges representing the glass industry, chainmaking and mining.

In the past the statue at the gateway to the town has been targeted by pranksters who dressed it up in sheets and capes.

The borough’s culture chief, Councillor David Stanley, said today: “It costs money to keep having to clean these things up.

“People are risking it anyway by trying to get on to that island, as it is busy with all the traffic.

“It is clearly a sign of the society that we live in these days.”

Councillor Stanley said he did not know the single cost of cleaning the heroic Worker statue, and the money comes from a general maintenance pot.

The sculptures at Cinder Bank were designed by Philip Bews and Diane Gor-vin as part of the £100,000 Millennium Sculpture Trail in the borough.

Other themed artwork positioned alongside the newly-named Duncan Ed-wards Bypass are ancient and geological history, on the grass verge at Wolverton Road, and medieval history on Castle Gate island.

Others include civic history at the small town centre roundabout and The Future, at Scotts Green island. Artists were shortlisted from all over the country, with borough artist Steve Field co-ordinating the exhibits 10 years ago.