Your name on the pier (From Penarth Times)

Your name on the pier

YOU'LL have to keep it short and sweet - or have a very short name - if you want to be immortalised on Penarth Pier!

The Vale Council has launched the Penarth Pier Brass Plaque Scheme, which gives residents the chance to buy a plaque to be fixed to the pier's wooden decking.

And they offer you the opportunity to have your name or a message engraved on the plaque for posterity

But anyone taking up the offer will get just 12 characters to play with - at the cost of £25 for the 10cm x 12cm plaques.

And that means the scheme will fall short of the mark for many prominent Penarthians, whose names are simply too long.

Frederick Speed, creator of so many of the town's fine buildings, would miss out - unless he was recorded as Fred perhaps.

AM Lorraine Barrett and athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson would also miss out, as would Penarth pop sensation Jemma Griffiths.

And council chief executive John Maitland-Evans and town mayor Charles Curran would have to forego their place on the pier too.

Former Penarth Times reporter John Humphrys, host of Mastermind and Radio 4's Today programme, would just about scrape in - but Cllr Anthony Ernest and the Rabaiotti family would miss out too.

A council spokesman said: "All plaques will be professionally countersunk onto the wooden decking of the pier, which overlooks the Bristol Channel.

"The scheme offers the chance to either buy a plaque for yourself or as a gift for a loved one to commemorate a wedding, birthday or anniversary.

"International visitors are also invited to buy a plaque as an extra-special record of their visit to South Wales."

The council confirmed that money raised through the scheme will be put back into maintaining the pier.

Anyone interested in the scheme can apply for a plaque by requesting a form from Penarth Tourist Information Centre located at the entrance of the pier.