A public appeal will be launched to raise money for a permanent memorial to the victims of the Tay Bridge disaster.
There has been substantial interest in a monument to the 75 people who died when the bridge collapsed during a winter storm in 1879 and sent a train plunging into the icy waters of the River Tay.
A group was set up to promote the campaign chaired by Stuart Morris, son of the Laird of Balgonie, and with Councillor Fraser Macpherson as secretary.
Mr Morris and Mr Macpherson recently had on-site discussions with council officers about the proposed site for the memorial, near the bridge.
A public appeal will be launched in October after being agreed at this week’s meeting of the group, involving representatives from Dundee and north Fife.
Mr Macpherson said, “We met with the council’s public art officer and the team leader in the development quality team, because obviously when we’re at the stage of having the memorial erected it will require planning approval.
“We’re intending to launch the public appeal in October and we’ve already received a couple of cheques from America in advance from people who have read the news reports.”
Mr Macpherson said the exact form of the memorial is under discussion and they are keen to hear the views of the public.
He said, “We know it will be a significant amount of funding required, which is why we are launching a public appeal, but because we have not finalised what the memorial will look like it’s impossible at this stage to say how much it will cost although we are speaking with memorial sculptors.”
Mr Macpherson also announced that Aberdeen playwright Mike Gibb’s Five Pound And Twa Bairns will also make a return to the stage to help the fund-raising effort.
The musical enjoyed an acclaimed inaugural run at the Gardyne Theatre, Dundee, in September 2005 before transferring to the Byre Theatre, St Andrews, in February 2006.
It enjoyed successful runs in Aberdeen in October 2006 and the Dundee Rep in June 2007, raising funds for the Mary Slessor Foundation.
Set in Dundee at the time of the bridge disaster, the musical play tells the story of three fictional women whose lives change forever on that fateful day.Community supportThe proposal has won the support of community councils in Wormit, Tayport and Dundee and the Tay Valley Family History Society.
Mr Macpherson said, “This came about because a number of us felt that frankly, over 130 years after the disaster took place, it seemed inappropriate that there has never been a lasting and fitting memorial to the victims.
“We want something that’s appropriate-something that depicts the high girders, for example.”
He added, “However, we are keen to involve those interested in public art and the wider public to get their ideas about what the finished memorial should look like.”
Mr Morris first suggested the idea of a memorial.
Two of his ancestors were among the victims-his great-great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Mann and her 16-year-old granddaughter Elizabeth Brown, who were travelling back to Dundee after visiting relatives in Leuchars.
The two-mile bridge collapsed less than two years after it opened.
The disaster shocked Victorian Britain and ruined the reputation of the bridge’s designer, Sir Thomas Bouch, who was knighted shortly before the disaster.