Antony Gormley statue for Dorset cliff top

An Antony Gormley statue described as a "robotic Angel of the North" will be installed on a cliff top in Dorset.

The 2m-high (6ft 6ins) human figure will be at Clavell Tower, Kimmeridge, from May for a year.

The statue will be one of five around the UK to mark the 50th anniversary of the Landmark Trust in 2015.

Historian Caroline Stanford said it will be Gormley's only solo exhibition in the UK next year and other locations were still to be announced.

Ms Stanford, who is head of engagement at the Landmark Trust, said the statue would be a "wonderful" and "thoughtful" presence at Kimmeridge and said: "It is a fantastic project to be working on with one of the generation's greatest artists.

"Everyone will be able to make up their own minds. We hope they will really enjoy everything about it."

Peter Wharf, Purbeck District Council's planning committee chairman, said it had divided opinion and added: "There was pleasure to have something so potentially attractive to tourists coming into town, but there was also concern about the potential for destabilising the cliff."

The artwork was approved by the council's planning committee on condition the foundations were dug by hand to avoid disturbing the cliff.

Mr Wharf said: "A robotic Angel of the North is how one person described it."

The temporary planning permission will expire in May 2016.

The Landmark Trust is a charity that restores at-risk buildings and lets them out for holidays.

It has rescued 200 buildings in the past 50 years.