A SCULPTURE dubbed the Wok of the North should be replaced by a work of art paying tribute to miners and the coal industry, according to a heritage group.

Durham County Council is looking to commission a 50ft diameter steel dish sculpture, officially called the Sky Bowl, that would be installed in the grounds of its headquarters at Aykley Heads, Durham City.

The council hopes it will rival Gateshead's iconic Angel of the North and draw visitors to the city.

However, the city's conservation group, the City of Durham Trust, says that the sculpture is unnecessary as it already has a stunning skyline dominated by the cathedral.

Now the Brandon Heritage Group, based in the former pit village near Durham, says the plans should be dropped and a commemoration of miners produced instead.

Keith Hutchinson, of the group, which has launched a petition against the plan, said: "Let us have a suitable monument to those miners who worked in perilous and dangerous conditions to fuel the industry of this country and who made Britain great.

"If our glorious skyline should be interrupted by a monument, let it be a sculpture that has pertinence to the area - namely, a miner's lamp or a coal miner at his travail, not a frying pan in the sky."

Council leader Ken Manton said the authority had already done much to promote the county's mining heritage, including installing a stained-glass window at County Hall that lists all the collieries operating when the National Coal Board came into existence in 1947.

"The public art proposal for Aykley Heads demonstrates an aspiration for County Durham to positively embrace change in the 21st Century and develop its profile nationally and internationally. There are a number of pieces of public art commemorating mining in the county, appropriately located, usually on former colliery sites," he said.