Bid to select stars who will grace cycle route into the city centre

Thursday 25 October 2012

BILLY Connolly, Rikki Fulton and Lulu are in the running to have statues erected in their honour in their home city.

LINK-UP: The Bridge to Nowhere is finally going somewhere as a cycling and walking route into the city centre.

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Steel figures of famous people with links to Glasgow are to be placed on a new walking and cycling route linking the city's west end to Central Station.

Only three spaces are available and others on the shortlist include independent MSP Margo MacDonald, artist Alasdair Gray, boxer Jim Watt, union leader Jimmy Reid and television presenter Tom Weir.

Sir Thomas Lipton, the creator of the Lipton tea brand, inventor James Watt, Marion Gilchrist, the first woman to gain a medical degree, and John Craig, a community activist from the Anderston area, make up the list of nominees.The scheme is part of the project to complete Glasgow's Bridge to Nowhere, which has been left high and dry for 40 years.The bridge, built over the M8 in the 1970s, was intended to link Anderston to the city centre but was not finished by the developer and ends in mid-air over the Mariott Hotel car park.The £1.3 million completion of the bridge will link Kelvingrove Park to Central Station, creating a new route for pedestrians and cyclists. Bike charity Sustrans, which received £50m from the Big Lottery Fund in 2007 to extend its National Cycle Network across the UK, is building a portrait bench along the new route, which will feature three lifesize 2D figures of the heroes.The nominees for the statues were chosen by a steering group set up by Glasgow City Council and residents were able to vote for their favourites in an online survey.The results are expected to be announced within the next fortnight and the figures will be unveiled at the project's planned completion next spring.Rowena Colpitts, scheme manager with Sustrans Scotland, said: "The portrait bench will help the route to really belong to the people, providing a point of intrigue along the way."

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Bid to select stars who will grace cycle route into the city centre

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