Give us a Spitfire to help the city lift-off! (From Daily Echo)

Give us a Spitfire to help the city lift-off!

9:01am Thursday 4th October 2007 in

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TODAY the Daily Echo nails its colours to the mast and calls for the city of Southampton to get its tribute to the Spitfire.

Since we revealed how plans for a Spitfire memorial had been axed in favour of a £120,000 model of the city, we have been inundated with comments from readers.

From the response it is obvious the majority of you want to see any new WOW factor for the city to be created around the memory of the famous fighter that was built here.

Now we are adding our voice to a campaign to bring what we believe is common sense to the whole debate and call for a Spitfire memorial on a grand scale to become a city priority.

We say, thank goodness those who built and flew the Spitfire aimed high. It is time we did the same.

The Daily Echo first revealed the search for the city's WOW factor has a £230,000 pot provided by government regeneration body SEEDA.

We explained how the first vision for spending that taxpayers' cash was the plan to shoot laser beams from the clock tower of the Civic Centre. This proposal, although imaginative, failed to win favour with many in the city and was dropped by the in-coming Tory administration.

Then it looked as though the cash would be spent on a replica of a Spitfire to be placed on the traffic island outside the De Vere hotel at the waterfront. This proposal found favour with the city council and many readers who thoughy it fitting for a city so identified with the famous aircraft. Many also recalled how Southampton workers at the Supermarine factory at Woolston where the Spitfire was built died when the plant was bombed by the Germans. How fitting this tribute would be.

However, Southampton Partnership, the body who has control over the decision as to how the cash should be spent thought otherwise. The unelected group of business and community representatives vetoed the Spitfire plan. They have now come forward with the proposal to spend £120,000 on a scale model of the city - to be housed beneath the stairs in the city Art Gallery - and £25,000 of new road signs. They have not decided how to spend the remaining £85,000.

We say enough is enough.

Few if any can be found who want the model plan. But the Spitfire proposal is almost universally welcomed by all age groups.

It is time, we say, to think again. But we want more.

We are calling for a complete rethink of this project. A replica model would be nice, but a large-scale sculpture that would be a real landmark at one of the entrances to the city would be far better. It would leave everyone in no doubt that this was the birthplace of the finest fighting aircraft the world has known - the plane that saved Britain in the time of its darkest hour.

Such a plan would be a fitting tribute to "The Few" who fought and died.

The city council has not abandoned hope of its own Spitfire. It aims to raise the cash itself if the SEEDA money is not available.

We say, why not combine both? With the £230,000 from SEEDA - a similar amount raised through the council that would create a real chance to build a truly fitting memorial.

We say, thank goodness those who built and flew the Spitfire aimed high. It is time we did the same.