A STATUE to honour Glasgow's first female councillor has been given the go-ahead.

Glasgow City Council has "overwhelmingly" backed calls to erect a monument, potentially in George Square, celebrating "working class heroine" Mary Barbour.

Councillors passed a motion by Councillor Pauline McKeever urging the local authority to support the Remember Mary Barbour committee, led by former MP Maria Fyfe.

Mary Barbour campaigned against steep rent rises during the First World War, paving the way for a law restricting the power of private landlords.

She also pushed for major welfare changes including free milk for schoolchildren, pensions for mothers, municipal banks, wash houses, laundries and public baths and pioneered the city's first family-planning clinic.

Glasgow currently only has three statues commemorating women. They are of Queen Victoria in George Square, Lady Isabella Elder in Govan and La Passionaria on the Clydeside Walkway.

Councillor McKeever said: "As a councillor, Mary Barbour campaigned successfully for improvements in the lives of her fellow citizens, and spent her life helping others.

"Her many accomplishments have had a profound effect on the communities she represented."

Campaign leader Maria Fyfe said the city's council's endorsement would help assist grant applications.

She said: "I'm absolutely delighted.

"We are putting together a list of bodies, including the lottery, who could potentially assist us with funding."

It is hoped the statue could be in place by 2015, the centenary of the rent strike. It is understood many supporters favour the statue being sited in Govan.

caroline.wilson @eveningtimes.co.uk