Plans to build a moving 30ft sculpture of a heron on the seafront have been put on hold after organisers struggled to raise the £100,000 needed to pay for it.

Art enthusiasts from Herne Bay group Kinetic Coast hoped to erect the aluminium attraction at the end of Neptune’s Arm.

Accountant Jason Hollingsworth, who led the project alongside artist Philip Long, previously told the Gazette it would be designed to raise its head and wings as the tide rises in order to “signal safe times to enter and exit the harbour”.

But the plans are now on ice after an unsuccessful bid for funding.

“The project is pretty much on hold for the time being,” he said.

“The reason is we were unsuccessful with a funding application that would have enabled us to move towards full feasibility and development studies.

“We expended a large amount of energy gaining the support of Canterbury City Council, only to have its planning department advise us that it would charge us for planning meetings, which to be honest knocked a bit of wind out of our sails.”

It is standard practice for the authority to charge for planning advice. Its website states the fee for a meeting would cost those hoping to erect public art £555.

Kinetic Coast had set up collection boxes on the pier, as well as a crowdfunding page online, but only managed to raise £3,000 in the last financial year.

About two-thirds of it was spent on designing a scale model of the heron and just under £1,000 was used to insure it and display it on the pier last summer.

Mr Hollingsworth says, should the plans be abandoned, any remaining funding will probably be given to Bayguide CIC, which manages Kinetic Coast.

The group wanted the heron to be part of a series of moving sculptures stretching from Herne Bay to Reculver.

“Team members have to move their focus onto their day jobs, but we haven’t given up on the sculpture trail,” Mr Hollingsworth said. “We were consulted regarding a Coastal Communities Fund grant that we understand included funding for the Heron, but have not yet heard whether the application got through the initial evaluation.”