COUNCIL bosses are getting ready for an uplifting experience as plans to raise a statue obscured by trees continue to take shape.

There have been plenty of ups and downs surrounding the £53,000 artwork, The Conference of Birds, which nests at St Helens Road, Daubhill.

Last week, the BEN told of plans to raise the statue by four metres so it would clear the tree line which hides it from view.

But council bosses said they could not yet give a date for when the statue would be moved.

This week, a council spokesman said that the artists who created the piece were currently drawing up plans to see how the statue will look when it is raised.

"The intention is still to raise the statue and the artists are now considering how it will look when it is raised," the spokesman said.

"We still do not have a date for when the work will take place."

The controversial centrepiece was funded from the Single Regeneration Budget and was designed to enhance the deprived area of Daubhill -- giving residents something to be proud of.

It was erected amid a circle of trees during the winter but when, in spring, the trees began to blossom back to life, it quickly became lost beneath a mass of foliage.

The predicament forced redfaced Town Hall bosses to admit they had made a mistake.