The last piece of the puzzle is complete for the Coleridge Memorial Project’s poetry stones as the council has adopted the project.

There had been one final stumbling block in securing the funding to build the 70 metre granite version of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous poem ‘Kubla Khan’ along the new pathway on the Land of Canaan.

The group had to raise a little over �3,000 locally in order to unlock two grants worth �28,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the ‘Making it Local’ fund run by Devon AONB.

Thanks to local support from residents, Ottery Town Council and others they smashed their target, raising around �4,500.

But a condition of the funding is there must be in place provision for any future repair work, and that East Devon District Council (EDDC) as the landowner takes over responsibility for the stones once they have been put in place.

Without this agreement the whole project would have been put into doubt, but a statement from Iain Chubb, the cabinet member for the environment at EDDC confirmed this week they agree to take over the responsibility for the future repair and maintenance of the ‘Coleridge Stones’ in the Land of Canaan.

It means the 68 stones, which will form the longest outdoor poem in the world, will be in place next Easter, and the Coleridge Memorial Project are already planning a celebration for their opening.