Merry merfolk move
at midnight

This letter was printed in the Hull Daily Mail on Wednesday, 3 January 2001

"Recent events at the New Year celebrations underline the urgency of restoring the fountains in Hull's Avenues area
    Many Mail readers will be aware of the ancient legend which says that the mermaids on the fountains come alive once a year at midnight and dance in the streets.
    I, and at least 200 other people, can confirm that it is no myth, for we saw it happen as we celebrated the arrival of the New Year around the Westbourne Avenue fountain.
    Not only did we see a living, dancing mermaid, but this year, even Nepture himself braved the cold and snow to put in an appearance (I'm sure it was Nepture because his Trident was clearly visible, despite being somewhat diminished by the cold).
  Obviously the Avenues merfolk were using the New Year celebration to protest against the city council's continuing failure to restore their damaged fountain homes.
    Wake up city council.
    Restore the fountains before nude dancing in the Avenues gets completely out of control."
G M Lawes
Avenues resident

The Fountain Rescue Team remind visitors to this site that the council have, indeed, given the go-ahead for the full restoration of the Park Avenue fountain (see "It's YES!!")