A NEW garden of remembrance will be created to remember all the Inverclyde people who have lost their lives to coronavirus.

Municipal Buildings staff are currently pulling together ideas for the proposed memorial grounds after councillors allocated money for the project — as well as separate bespoke handmade benches.

The three benches — which will be made of stainless steel and painted in NHS blue — are to be placed in locations in Greenock, Port Glasgow and Gourock, with each bearing the words 'Thank You NHS, Key Workers and Volunteers'.

Preparations for the memorial garden are at an early stage, with a suitable spot yet to be identified.

But it is seen by members of the local authority as an important way of marking the effect the pandemic has had on the entire district, with over 120 people passing away as a result of it.

Council leader Stephen McCabe said: "We are looking at some sort of memorial garden to commemorate and remember the people who have sadly lost their lives as part of this pandemic.

"The benches are not just the only sort of memorial, they are part of a wider plan to remember this most significant event in all of our lives."

A budget of £15,000 has been allocated for the trio of benches and the council has expressed a clear desire to award the work to contractors within the district.

Councillor Innes Nelson questioned the £5,000 per bench price tag at a meeting of the environment and regeneration committee and urged a 'cheaper' option.

Mr Nelson said: "Five thousand pounds per bench does seem a bit high and hopefully locally they could be procured a lot cheaper than that."

He called for benches to be provided for Wemyss Bay, Inverkip and Kilmacolm 'if the price could be brought down a bit'.

Environment and regeneration director Scott Allan responded: "The £5,000 cost is what we believe it will cost for a bench that's in stainless steel and will have durability.

"We did consider getting a cheaper kind of bench that could be in timber or reconstituted plastic but we didn't feel that it would be durable enough, or the materials appropriate for the commemoration.

"We would need to look at the budget if we went from three benches to six benches."

Councillor McCabe said: I'm happy for officers to explore the cost of providing a bench in each of the main settlements and looking to see if they can accommodate that within budgets.

"If not, then they can potentially come back and look for additional funding."