HIS predecessor stood guard at the old Radcliffe Infirmary for more than 150 years.

But now a new Triton statue will take his place outside Oxford University ’s new Radcliffe Observatory Quarter and will be unveiled in October.

Oxford City Council ’s west area planning committee has approved plans for a new figure, costing £46,000.

Councillors heard the original statue, which was installed in the courtyard in front of the infirmary on Woodstock Road in 1858, had been damaged by years of frozen winters.

The new 6ft statue will be made using the same mould as the one used to produce a Triton for Lady Rothermere in Ferne Park.

City councillors at Oxford Town Hall on Thursday questioned why the original Triton could not be replicated exactly.

Councillor John Goddard said: “I think it should be put back exactly as it was. I think it should look the same and this new one doesn’t and it won’t.”

But representatives from Oxford University said this would cost hundreds of thousands to create an entirely new mould, rather than using one already in existence.

The original Triton will be relocated indoors in a building on the site, which is yet to be determined.

According to Greek mythology, Triton was the son of sea god Poseidon and was ordered to blow on a trumpet made of a shell to soothe the waves.