An ambitious bid to bring a 14-tonne statue of Sir Titus Salt back to his home in Saltaire has flopped because of the cost.

Members of the multi-agency Saltaire Project Team aimed to bring the statue from Lister Park back to the former mill owner's historic model village back in time for the bicentenary of his birth in 2003.

But today it was revealed the estimated cost of the operation has shot up from an estimated £20,000 to £100,000.

And disappointed project chairman Phil Thornton said today that although letters appealing for funds had gone out to more than 20 businesses and organisations in Saltaire there had been just two offers to contribute.

"It is substantially down to the transport - you can't just pick it up and take it away. You need scaffolding and specialists and you might find faults and problems. There were also electrical works and other works which would have been needed in connection with the highways.

"The only offers we had were from Filtronic and the chairman of the Training and Enterprise Council, Howard Bell, who offered a personal donation."

The 124-year-old statue would have been put in a gateway on land off Salts Mill Road.

Project team member Clive Woods, who is also a local historian and chairman of Saltaire Village Society, said: "We're very disappointed.''

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