The success of a campaign to raise £60,000 for a memorial to fishermen lost at sea has underlined the Grimsby Telegraph’s close links with the local community.

The appeal was launched in November, 1998, and is now within £5,000 of the target.Donations have ranged from £5,000 from Lottery winners to pennies from schoolchildren.

The paper says that, throughout the campaign, support has been enthusiastic and has come from every section of the community. Individuals and organisations have held special events to raise money and contributions have come from firms large and small.

The Telegraph has repeatedly stressed that the memorial is a community project and that the choice of design and location must involve local people. Suggestions for designs were sought from local artists and sculptors and these have now gone on display in an exhibition which will be seen in libraries, the town’s main shopping centre and theatres.

Voting forms are being made available at each venue and have also been printed in the paper. Several hundred replies were received in the first week.

Before and during the campaign, talks have been held with North East Lincolnshire Council about a suitable location for the memorial. Officials have been keen to help and architects have included possible sites within their plans for the regeneration of the area in which most fishing families once lived.

The campaign, which stemmed from an interview with a former trawler skipper who had considered trying to raise the money himself, was launched with a Page One lead and a special publication about the loss of trawlers in the Arctic fishing grounds.

The Telegraph was subsequently deluged with donations. It has since carried regular updates of how the fund is going and about novel ways of raising money, which have included the production of a CD by local folk musicians, coffee mornings, and net braiding demonstrations at the local market.

Telegraph editor Peter Moore says the campaign has had huge support.

“We have had hundreds of letters along with donations. There has not been a single word against it.

“The important thing has been to involve the community and that will continue. We decided to go for £60,000 after taking expert advice on the creation of a memorial and aimed at raising that amount over two years.

“We are now planning to form a group comprising community interests which will commission the memorial and then ensure it is properly maintained. We shall also be seeking to gain charitable status once it is built.”

The favourite design so far – of a fisherman hauling in nets over the side of a trawler – is well-known to Telegraph staff. A model of it stands in the editor’s office – it was created by Trevor Harries, a member of the paper’s process department and a well-known sculptor.

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