Miners who died in the four Kent collieries will have their names recorded on the base of the Waiting Miner statue when it is moved from Dover seafront to the entrance to the Fowlmead Country Park in Betteshanger.

The statue was commissioned in the early 1960s by the Central Electricity Generation Board and was originally sited at Richborough Power Station.

When the power station closed, the statue was donated to the district council and was moved to Dover seafront, next to what had been the National Coal Board offices.

There has been a campaign to move the statue to a more appropriate and relevant location, and it was agreed the new site should be next to the Miner’s Way at Fowlmead Park on the A258 Deal to Sandwich road.

Made of bronze, the miner is on a concrete base to simulate a slab of coal.

In its new location, it will be slightly higher ground to the north west of the Fowlmead roundabout, some 1.4 metres above road level.

To prevent it being damaged, the statue will be covered with “smart water” and the base will be raised on a natural stone-clad concrete plinth which will have four faces, each carved with an emblem from the four former pits, Betteshanger, Tilmanstone, Snowdown and Chislet, alongside the names of those miners who died in the search for coal.