What a shame that plans to move Sir Titus Salt's statue out of its sadly inauspicious home in a dark corner of Lister Park have fallen down because of escalating costs.

There are two obviously far-more-suitable homes for this statue. One is back in the heart of Saltaire, a move which the Saltaire Project Team's appeal was trying to achieve. The other is in a place of pride in the city centre, with statues of other local heroes ringing Centenary Square, which is the way that Manchester commemorates its worthies.

It is rather surprising that the likely cost of the move could not have been more accurately forecast. For a £20,000 appeal to be launched for an operation which is now estimated at £100,000 seems to have been bewilderingly optimistic.

If as seems likely the statue is tragically doomed to its current fate of being left to languish in the gloomy shade of trees behind the bulk of the Norman Arch, then perhaps the Council should be looking at ways of helping it to enjoy a brighter future.

A vast amount of money is currently being spent on Lister Park, among other things to revive its boating lake and create a Moghul Garden. Perhaps some of that money could be diverted to clean up the area around the statue to give it more presence and make it more visible to the public.

And if the Council can't find the funds to do that, perhaps it could look at contacting a commercial organisation like the brewery planning to hijack Sir Titus's name for a new pub and see if it can help out.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.