District planners have given the go-ahead for plans to build a two-metre high antelope statue in the grounds of Warwick Castle.

The Royal Warwickshire Regiment had applied for permission to erect the bronze memorial in the Peacock Garden to honour members of the regiment who have died during active service.

The design for the statue is based on 'Bobby', the regiment's Indian Black Buck mascot.

Warwick District Council has this week approved the designs which will see the antelope sit on a two-tier plinth with a commemorative plaque.

The memorial will replace a bench next to the 18th century orangery building, which was originally built to house a huge fourth century Greek marble urn.

The application said: "The proposed memorial would sit comfortably within the formal Peacock Garden, creating a new focal point at the end of one of the three linear pathways, replacing the existing modern bench seat."

It added: "The discrete location of the memorial, at the edge of the formal garden and set within existing boundary planting, means that it would not distract from or compete with the design value of the Peacock Garden."

Last year a memorial honouring the 154 men from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment who were killed or injured during a battle in France in 1944 was unveiled in Normandy.

The plaque was unveiled at Lebisey Wood near Caen in June, 78 years after the regiment's second battalion suffered heavy losses during the unsuccessful assault on Lebisey.

A memorial honouring the Royal Warwickshire Regiment men who were lost on 7 June 1944 was unveiled at Lebisey Wood last year (image supplied)