Long-standing plans to erect a surf sculpture in Newquay to celebrate the contribution the town has made to world surfing have taken the next step, with an application submitted to planners.

The Stuart and Cherrilyn Keogh Trust proposes to install a bronze sculpture of a wave rider at the Killacourt.

The surf statue would be made out of stainless steel and bronze and mounted on a polished concrete plinth.

A spokesman for the applicant, said: “Set into and flush with the plinth there will be three up-lighters illuminating the statue. The operation of these lights will be controlled as the rest of the illuminations on the Killacourt.

“The height to the base of the statue on top of the structure is 3.4m. A basketball hoop is 3m high.

“It is felt that this height is sufficient to stop persons jumping onto the statue and it will obviously not pose a headroom issue.

“The curved structure offers no grip and would be very difficult to climb.

“No form of fencing is proposed around the statue. The risk of walking into the structure is no more than that of walking into a sign post.”

Newquay Town Council’s planning committee voted no objection to the surf statue at its meeting last Wednesday subject to conditions in the stability report being met – Councillor Joanna Kenny, the chairman of the planning committee, said: “Basically, that the ground is firm enough to take the weight of the statue and the plinth.

“We’d look pretty silly if the ground at that point was sand or not so solid mud.

“We’d now expect the plans to be reviewed by the planning officer who no doubt will discuss his conclusion with Cllr Gardner, the local member.

“This doesn’t meant that the individuals on the committee liked the revised design, just that in our view it met planning criteria and the requirements of the Newquay Neighbourhood Plan.

“Particular concern raised was the need for an additional strut on the installation – though personally I was much relieved to see that, it looked blindingly obvious to me what when some prawn decides to climb on the surfer, the stress without a support would put far too much pressure on the end.

“Accordingly we made a recommendation to full council that they review the latest plans, both in terms of the look and perhaps they’d like to review the proposals for the water run-off.”

The statue is the result of a long-running debate over where the sculpture should be sited, which was put to a public vote to choose the Killacourt.