PLANS for a massive Celtic cross to be built close to the Tamar Bridge will move forward if a National Lottery grant is approved.

The 62ft-high cross – which is intended to be as iconic as the Angel of the North sculpture near Gateshead – is part of a proposed project by residents in Saltash.

The team, headed by town resident Joe Ellison, wants to spruce up an overgrown area close to the Tamar Bridge next year.

Mr Ellison said there would many ideas in the project but the centrepiece would be the Celtic cross.

He said: "We have got a bid for up to £450,000 into the lottery's Community Spaces fund and we have been shortlisted down to the final three in the South West.

"It's not just about the cross – this is an overgrown area and ideas also include a Cornish apple orchard and a small performance amphitheatre.

"There is an exhibition on the plans at the moment in Saltash Guildhall but we won't know if we are successful in the bid until January."

Plans for the cross have been in the making over the past nine years.

Simon Thomas, a sculptor from Fowey, is designing it in copper to reflect Cornwall's history of mining the metal.

He has already made a smaller scale model of the cross – but the finished version, should it be built, would tower high into the air and would be seen by motorists on their approach into Cornwall.

Mr Ellison said it would be a credit to the town – and to Cornwall.

He said that other ideas for the overgrown area next to the Tamar Bridge slip road in Saltash include an apple orchard, which was on the site up until the 1850s, a small wetland area to encourage wildlife into the area and a 'woodland fitness trail'.

Mr Ellison expects to call a press conference on the plans at the end of the month.