'Creepy' giant baby appears in Greater Manchester town centre - leaving locals baffled and 'terrified'

An 8.5 metre puppet of a giant baby called Lilly arrived for a ‘dress rehearsal’ in the town square – and locals say it left them ‘terrified’.  The baby is a part of a campaign to raise awareness about nature safeguarding, ahead of the council’s ‘Wild Wanders’ event next month, a night-time nature trail through Hollingworth Country Park.

Responding to an image of the puppet on the Facebook Group ‘Right Nosey B’stards Rochdale, many quipped that it looked like ‘the Greta Thunberg edition of Squid Game’ or ‘Chucky Returns’. 

Md Naeem Ullah joked: “I wanted a Primark but this is ok too, thanks.” And Jasmine Simpson commented: “That’s the creepiest thing I ever did see HAHAHAHA.”

Lilly is supposed to stay in the town centre throughout the rest of September, with school children invited to ‘tell her about their hopes and dreams’ for the environment in the borough. In October, the puppet is expected to make an appearance at the Wild Wanders event, where she will ‘share’ all the ideas she’s gathered from the kids. 

But parents thought the giant puppet would ‘give children nightmares’ and would have more success ‘scaring away the town’s drunks’. 

Others found less humour in the giant baby, raising questions about the cost to the public purse. Stacey Anderson called the publicity stunt ‘a waste of money and a stupid idea’ while another commenter questioned why the council had spent money on ‘something that awful’ while environmental services could be ‘fining fly-tippers instead’.  

Still others found it ‘in poor taste’ to feature a ‘giant naked baby’ in the town centre when the council was still building public trust in child safeguarding following the Rochdale abuse scandal. 

Rochdale Council did not wish to respond directly to the comments but explained the baby was there as a ‘dress rehearsal’ ahead of an ‘surprise appearance’ at the town hall later today.