THERE have been 2,400 plinthers, 35,000 applications and one person every hour 24 hours a day for 100 days. And it was Emma Burns, from Darlington, who brought Antony Gormley’s One and Other project to an end.

Being last to occupy the Fourth Plinth put her in an unenviable position. As Trafalgar Square filled up with TV crews, photographers and previous plinthers yesterday morning, the 30-year-old medical photographer had the difficult job of holding the crowd.

Around her on the ground, interviews were conducted for TV and radio, pink balloons from Breast Cancer Care bobbed about in the breeze and a man drapped in a Union flag bore a placard reading Don’t take wardens from care homes.

That appeal might be the success of this series of installations in which people from all cultures and backgrounds with ages ranging from 18 to 84 had their 60 minutes of fame to do with as they wanted.

Emily cut a lonely figure on the plinth, in a red coat standing in front of a lectern with 96 red balloons blowing the wind beside her. She spent her 60 minutes reading out the names of the football fans who died at Hillsborough, 20 years ago.

After each name, she cut a balloon loose.

Despite a loudspeaker, she wasn’t always audible, but the sentiments being expressed came over loud and clear. Originally from Liverpool, she was backed by a group fighting for justice for the Hillsborough victims.

As the nearby clock struck 9am, she still had half a dozen names to recite and carried on speaking as the JCB slowly approached to bring her down.

She was allowed to overstay her hour to finish the rollcall.

A party atmosphere, celebrating the end of the project, was building as she was slowing lowered to the ground where she was surrounded by photographers and camera crews and a crowd of about 200 people broke into a version of the Liverpool anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Gormley was there to greet her, marking the end of a project that Sky Arts has streamed for the full 100 days.

Emma, still surrounded by the media, was ushered into the project’s temporary HQ.

The last but by no means the least of the plinthers.

She said: “When the hour was up I still had a few names to read out so I refused to get down until I had finished. I wanted people to be aware that 20 years on and families who have lost people still do not have all the information.

“I also wanted people to be aware that these are individual cases and not just 96 people put together. I spoke to Antony Gormley afterwards and thanked him for the opportunity.”

Mr Gormley said: “It has been an extraordinary mixture of people who’ve just done something for fun and those that have gone up there with a burning cause that they want to represent and that is what makes it so rich and actually very difficult to criticise.”