A COUNCIL has submitted its own design for the Angel of the South after claiming it was “left out” of planning the landmark.

On October 1 a panel selected a shortlist of three designs for the 50 metre high £2m Ebbsfleet Landmark which will loom over the A2 from the Ebbsfleet Valley development.

The landmark will be within the boundaries of Swanscombe and Greenhithe Town Council, but its leader says it was “not asked to put forward ideas”.

Town mayor Councillor Bryan Read said: “There was supposed to be consultation but we were not consulted at all and nor were the public. We have been left out.”

“This council is 100 per cent against the designs for the landmark, and nobody who lives here wants one of those designs to be the landmark.”

The panel overseeing the creation of the landmark is made up of representatives from the three companies which commissioned it - Land Securities, Eurostar and London and Continental Railways.

Last week the council sent a letter to the panel to object to the shortlisted designs and propose its own design for the landmark.

This is the symbol of Swanscombe and Greenhithe - a viking longboat - and Councillor Read says it “means something to the local people”.

He said: “We are the ones who will have to live with the landmark and see it every day, so we want something that inspires people and gives them pride.”

Les Bobby, 66, of Lewis Road, has lived in Swanscombe all his life and says he “would be very happy with the viking long boat design as the landmark because it has history in the area”.

The three designs selected by the panel are by award-winning artists Daniel Buren, Richard Deacon and Mark Wallinger.

A spokesman for the panel said: “We invited world renowned artists to submit their responses to the brief for the landmark.

“There was then a comprehensive public consultation process, as we displayed the designs in Bluewater and other local places to allow people to give us their feedback.”

However Councillor Read says the council and local people should have been able to put forward their own designs for the landmark, rather than just comment on those shortlisted by the panel.

He added: “We will fight the current plans until the end.”

The landmark is expected to be completed by 2010.

For more Angel of the South stories go to newsshopper.co.uk/news/local/northkent/