SUPPORT for a controversial giant public sculpture to celebrate shipbuilding in Port Glasgow has been unanimously given by councillors — despite costs more than doubling to £600,000.

The decision by members of the environment and regeneration committee came after council leader Stephen McCabe declared that the heavily delayed project would still have the 'wow factor'.

Councillor McCabe conceded that no-one envisaged the upwardly spiralling cost — and the time that has elapsed to deliver the work — but insisted that persevering with it was 'worthwhile'.

He told the committee: "I am still convinced that once it is erected it will have the 'wow factor' and will stand the test of time and be something that the community will be proud of."

Meanwhile, it has emerged that urban regeneration company Riverside Inverclyde — which first commissioned the 'Shipbuilders of Port Glasgow' sculpture — has agreed to help plug a £143,000 funding shortfall.

The Telegraph told last month how the financial chasm meant that the cost of the project had more than doubled from its original £250,000 pricetag in 2013.

The RI board — who transferred it to Inverclyde Council in February 2019 for completion and installation — have agreed to stump up £100,000, with the remaining £43,000 to come from Municipal Buildings reserves.

Councillor Chris McEleny called on his fellow elected members to make the sculpture a 'beacon' in order to demand all future Scottish Government ferry building contracts are awarded to Port Glasgow's Ferguson's shipyard.

The Alba Party man said: "It would be a travesty if we erected a sculpture in tribute to shipbuilding next to a shipyard that the Scottish Government continues to fail to directly award ferry contracts to.

"So I think this sculpture should really act as a beacon that Inverclyde is open for business and we should all pull together, including my former colleagues in the SNP, in calling on the Scottish Government to directly award those contracts to Ferguson's."

The ten-metre high, 14-tonne, sculpture by renowned artist John McKenna is currently due to be erected in Coronation Park early next year, weather permitting.

It is thought to be the largest sculptural figure of shipbuilders in the UK and one of the biggest of its kind in western Europe.

Councillor McCabe said: "It's absolutely taken far, far longer than we anticipated and cost far more than we anticipated and we're still not at the end point.

"I do hope that we progress in the timescale envisaged and we don't find any further issues with the project."

Port councillor Drew McKenzie said: "This sculpture will be impressive and I think we must embrace the opportunity of enhancing the whole area in which it will stand.

"It gives us the opportunity to really turn Coronation Park into something special, taking the example of what Falkirk has done with The Kelpies in the area surrounding that."

Cllr David Wilson said: "I would like to completely endorse what Councillor McCabe, Councillor McKenzie and Councillor McEleny have said.

"I think that it will be a wonderful piece of public art and I just can't wait to see it up there."

The SNP's Chris Curley added: "We all want to make sure it is not a memorial to Ferguson's shipyard.

"Ferguson's is of prime importance to the economic strategy of Inverclyde and I think all parties agree on that point."