PLANS to spend £65,000 raising the height of a famous Glasgow statue  - in a bid to stop revellers placing traffic cones on it - have today been withdrawn.

Glasgow City Council wanted to raise the plinth of the Duke of Wellington monument in the centre of the city.

However, after a massive social media campaign, a council spokesman today told the Evening Times the plans have been dropped.

The council had said that raising the height would end a “depressing image” of Glasgow and would save the £10,000 cost of removing the cone 100 times a year.

A council spokesman said:  “The wording of the report was appalling and the Leader of the council has instructed officers to withdraw the planning application.”

Glasgow City Council yesterday revealed moves to halt revellers scaling the Duke of Wellington in Royal Exchange Square by doubling the size of the plinth.

In a planning application, the authority - which spends £10,000 a year removing cones from the Duke's head - branded the iconic image "depressing" and raised concerns about damage to the monument.

But the proposal was met with fury from cone-fans who took to social media sites in their thousands, calling for it to be scrapped.

And the Evening Times understands that discussions took place among senior council figures last night over how best to pull the application.

Although the council is an agreement that the Duke's statue, outside the GoMA, is being damaged and has quietly been removing the image from promotional materials, the language used in the application is said to have caused concern.

One source said: "Yes, we all agree that the tradition of the cone on the Duke's head is probably one to move on from but its not a 'depressing sight', as the application made out.

"It was probably felt this document was for internal consumption and wouldn't become public but it has.

"Gordon (Matheson, the council leader) is as livid about this as I've ever seen him. He appreciates there's a lot of affection for this and the tone and language of the application hasn't helped."

The planning application stated: "For more than 30 years the Wellington monument has been defaced by traffic cones, which regularly appear on the head of the horse or rider (and sometimes both) after the revelries of the weekend.

"Ironically, this unfortunate impression of the city has been supported by former Lord Provosts and chief executive and even adopted occasionally by the city marketing bureau."

A city council spokesman then said: "Paint on the statue is peeling, causing corrosion to the ironwork and hastening water damage. Putting cones on the statue may seem harmless but it is an act of vandalism and a fall could be very harmful.

"We would urge anyone considering putting a cone on the statue to not do so."

The Duke of Wellington's cone was named by Lonely Planet as one of 10 Scottish sights in a list of the top 1000 spectacles in the world.

This inclusion is supported by the 10,000 people who rushed to sign online petition "Save Wellington's Cone! Don't raise the plinth!" just hours after it was launched. And over 40,000 who joined a Facebook protest page.

Protesters whipped up a storm on Twitter, venting their anger using the hastags 'conegate' and 'savethecone' which was trending in Glasgow last night.

Politicians also rushed to the defence of the coned statue, urging the council to back down and spend money on more important causes.

Glasgow's SNP Leader, councillor Graeme Hendry, said: "Where as it might not be deliberately part of our history, it is part of our image now. It is one of the iconic things about the city."

Some locals had pledged to continue to crown the Duke with a cone, even if the plinth was raised.

Mr Hendry added: "People will still strive to put a traffic cone on that head, it's Glasgow black humour, the council should just embrace it."

The traffic-coned Duke was adopted by the Evening Times in successful advertising campaigns.