A BLAZING row has broken out after an “offensive” plaque saw an installation removed from a Shoebury park. Gabriella Hirst, artist and creator of An English Garden, claims her work has now been removed from Gunners Park after “complaints and threats” were made by Southend Tory councillors. The plaque had intended to highlight the site’s proximity to the ranges where Britain assembled its early atomic weaponry in the 1950s. But Tony Cox, Tory leader of the opposition, said it had offended residents. The plaque read: “In 1952, Britain’s first atomic device was assembled at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment on Foulness Island, only six miles from this location.