A Douglas councillor has raised the issue of returning the Derby Square mast to the gardens at a recent meeting of the local authority.

The historic mast was removed in October last year due to its ’unsafe condition’ and in anticipation of forecasted high winds.

Councillor Betty Quirk said she was ’pleased’ to see that the issue had now been brought before the regeration committee, and that she had been contacted by several Derby Square residents who were ’annoyed and angry’ over its ’sudden’ removal. Mrs Quirk called the mast ’an iconic landmark in this part of Douglas’.

She said: ’I don’t understand how it required emergency removal, given that it has been standing for 160 years - it had been removed, repaired and secured with new fastening only 30 years ago.’

She argued the examination of rot was not thorough enough, and that expert advice should have been sought.

She then called on the chairman to give assurance that the mast will be ’repaired or replaced with one of a similar size’ at the ’earliest practical opportunity’.