THE campaign to erect a statue of North Ayrshire’s most famous sons took another step forward this week with the release of a sketch of what it will look like.

The team behind the Campaign to Get Bobby Lennox a Statue in Saltcoats Town published details of where the statue of the Celtic and Scotland great will be housed as well as what it could look like if all fundraising goes to plan.

And teaming up with the sculptor who has already produced statues of Bobby’s Lisbon Lions teammates Billy McNeill and Jimmy Johnstone, John McKenna is the best man for the job.

Dean McMillan from the campaign told the Herald: “We met with the sculptor and we met with Bobby and spoke to him about the pose he wanted.

“It will be an everlasting image of Bobby so we wanted a pose he identified with.

“He identified more with the Celtic strip because he has won more league medals than he did caps for Scotland.

“It’s not a Celtic statue, it’s a statue of a local person who as done incredibly well for himself.

“He’s stayed true to Saltcoats, so the process is that we have the sketch to get an idea and hopefully that will help raise funds.

“The first question people ask is what will it look like and the second question is where is it going.

“We have decided that the preferred site is on the shore. We just need to raise funds to get there.

“We’re sitting on about £5,500. The statue comes in three stages, he sculpts it, he waxes it and then he bronzes it.

“Each stage you can pay for and the target we have set ourselves is about £40,000. It might be less but that is our target.

“So we are about half way through the first stage. This will give us the statue in basic form.

“It’s a long process and our only fear is it dwindling out and we hope we can raise as much as we can this calendar year.

“We are trying to get approval with the site and this should hopefully be done in the next couple of weeks.

“With where it is we just have to make sure we are waxing it and keeping it fresh.”

There are lots of events planned in the next year with football tournaments, fundraising nights and other ideas being proposed.

All the details of future events will be posted on the Get Bobby Lennox a Statue in Saltcoats Town Facebook page.

You can also watch these pages - and our Facebook and website - for all the latest updates about the statue plans.