Falkirk Council gets green light from planners to build 'workers memorial'

Planning officers gave the go ahead on Friday, January 24.

The online planning documents relate to a “workers memorial” which will consist of three stone blocks and be three metres in height. Plans also show a metal three dimensional globe which will fixed to the stone memorial using a metal rod and chemical resin.

The galvanised steel globe that sits within the stone plinth was made by engineering students attending Forth Valley College’s Falkirk campus over a decade ago and monument designer Karolina Surmacz, who was then on secondment with local architect Tommy Thomson, moved on to her own business, KS Design, based in Polmont.

The monument was initially intended to be located in Falkirk town centre. However, the discovery of an underground waste pipe at the original Lint Riggs site ruled out that location.

There was then a proposal to site the memorial at Callendar Riggs in the east end of Falkirk town centre and there had been plans to have it in place by the end of April 2019.

Championed by Falkirk Trades Union Council, whose members acknowledged there had been a “few problems along the way”, the monument is ready to be put in place once again and it is hoped this new location, given the all clear by the local authority, will prove to be a case of third time lucky.