A viral social media campaign has put a stop to Glasgow City Council’s plans to raise the plinth of the Duke of Wellington statue.
The proposed £65,000 plan would raise Wellington and his horse by approximately 3 feet, a move which the council hoped would deter tradition of placing a traffic cone atop the iron duke’s head.
Declared ‘vandalism’ and a ‘depressing image’ of the city by the council, Wellington’s cone has nonetheless been recognised a Glasgow institution, and the the prime amusement of the drunken Glaswegian for the last 30 years. The be-coned duke is so iconic that as well as being a staple image of Glaswegian souvenirs, in 2011 Lonely Planet named it one of the world’s ultimate sights.
Such is the admiration both natives and tourists have for the statue that just hours after the plan was reported in the press, an online petition against the proposed works had gained over 10,000 signatures. The ‘Save Wellington’s Cone!’ campaign went on to attract international media attention, prompting Glasgow City Council to revoke planning permission less than 24 hours later.
A council spokesperson said: “The wording of the report was appalling and the leader of the council (Gordon Matheson) has instructed officers to withdraw the planning application.”
The campaign also attracted the attention of another Scottish icon, Still Game’s Greg Hemphill, who, punning on one of his well-known catchphrases, tweeted: ‘Cony naw dae that!’
Situated outside Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art in Royal Exchange Square, just south of the Strathclyde campus, the statue and its iconic headgear is a feature of many a student’s daily commute that often goes unnoticed. But perhaps in the wake of ‘ConeGate,’ more of us will look up and admire this daft tradition.
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