SO much for the Angel of the North - it doesn't even get close to our Encounter!

Dwarfing the Gateshead landmark by more than 25 feet, and the tallest public artwork unveiled since Nelson's Column, the long-awaited Encounter has landed in Birchwood.

And with the 'Angel of Warrington' - a nickname project supporters have been eager to avoid - making nationwide headlines, artist Stephen Broadbent is happy at the response to his 91 foot masterpiece.

Said Stephen: "I think that Warrington and Birchwood have been given a wonderful lift with the statue."

He hopes that Encounter, located next to the M62's junction 11, will always remind Birchwood youngsters of home, as they make their way in the world.

Away from lessons, a team of Birchwood High School pupils have been closely monitoring Encounter's creation, from original designs to the construction and installation process, which was completed last weekend.

"I hope that it will become a kind of homecoming landmark for the schoolchildren who have worked on it, as they go off to university," Stephen told the Guardian.

With debate raging about the installation of phone masts inside everything from petrol station signs to church towers, some national and regional newspapers attempted to ignite a note of controversy into the unveiling.

But as Stephen pointed out, and the Guardian exclusively revealed earlier this year, supporters of the project have never made a secret out of the artwork's dual purpose.

Communications firm Hutchison 3G breathed new life into the £250,000 proposals when it suggested incorporating transmitters into the structure to assist its third generation mobile phone network.

The summit of the sculpture, depicting two figures meeting, is fashioned with glass reinforced plastic, which is transparent to radio waves.

Funding for the grandiose scheme, dreamed up by Birchwood Forum, was also provided by Groundwork Mersey Valley and Biffa Waste.

Encounter is not the only artwork which Stephen's studio is involved with in Birchwood though.

His colleague, Sheffield-born Melanie Jackson, has designed another sculpture, commissioned by Birchwood Park Estates.

A little more than 12ft tall and incorporating a copper wheel and stainless steel pipes, plans have been made to erect it on a new roundabout on the A574, next to one of the business estate's entrances.