We are proud to announce that Glasgow City Council has withdrawn their planning application and the cone is safe for the time being! In less than 24 hours this petition has attracted 10,613 signatures and much attention from the local and national press. Also in less than 24 hours, you let your voice be heard and did your part to protect a beloved landmark and a cherished cultural tradition. We are proud to be Glaswegians today, and you should be too. We will be formallly delivering this petition to the City Council as soon as possible: we don't want anyone to forget ConeGate.

We will be out celebrating the cone at 5pm today (Tuesday...look for Donna's cone-coloured trousers). We hope to see you there, do say hello!

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We are appalled to read (http://news.stv.tv/west-central/248081-duke-of-wellington-cone-head-statue-in-glasgow-to-be-raised/) that the Glasgow City Council has plans to raise the plinth under the statue of Wellington, with the stated, and misguided, goal of discouraging people from placing a cone on his head.

The cone on Wellington's head is an iconic part of Glasgow's heritage, and means far more to the people of Glasgow and to visitors than Wellington himself ever has. Raising the statue will, in any case, only result in people injuring themselves attempting to put the cone on anyway: does anyone really think that a raised plinth will deter drunk Glaswegians?

The cone has been named by Lonely Planet as one of 10 Scottish inclusions in a list of the top 1000 sights in the world: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/flaming-glory-10-scottish-sights-among-worlds-best.15263656 It has its own Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Statue,_Glasgow

Finally, the claimed £10,000-a-year cone removal cost is contradicted by the Council's own figures, as according to a recent FOI request this is done as part of routine maintenance: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41353968/4140279%20response.pdf

We request that the Council not waste tens of thousands of pounds attempting to stop this proud Glaswegian tradition. It is a landmark, a point of culture and tradition, a place of note, a shared bit of heritage for the whole city.

UPDATE 1:

This petition has been featured on BBC News: Plans to end cone tradition on Glasgow's Wellington statue

UPDATE 2:

The petition has made the Metro, the Herald, the Extra, and the Telegraph

UPDATE 3:

Early reports indicate that the City Council may have backed down. We MAY have saved the cone! Pretty good for an afternoon. More word when we get it. We will still be delivering the petition to the Council.

UPDATE 4:

The BBC is reporting that ConeGate is "likely" over: "The council has reconsidered its decision after an online petition called "Save Wellington's Cone", which gathered thousands of signatories in just a few hours". Hooray!

We'd still like to see official word from the City Council but things look good. Gavin and Donna will still be delivering the petition so keep adding your cone love coming.