Town man’scampaign for Crane

Hugh Creaney feels so strongly about the crane’s potential that he has set up an online petition and has lobbied city officials.

His plea comes after the original plan to launch the Games – the demolition of most of the Red Road tower blocks – was abandoned after a public protest campaign.

It was variously argued the plan was a crass insult to the generations who had lived in the flats, and that the proposed explosion could pose safety risks to onlookers.

A public petition against the plan, and high profile opposition from artists and architects, forced a rethink on how the Games should be flagged up.

Mr Creaney argues his plan would send out a strong message about Glasgow’s \historic links with the Clyde, and he has already attracted nearly 700 supporters.

The Finnieston crane is both a supreme feat of engineering and an emblem celebrating the Clyde shipyards’ role in Glasgow’s industrial heyday.

He has been told the crane – a landmark structure highlighting the city’s heritge – is owned by Clyde Port rather than the council, but that it has been lit “intermittently” in the past.