A BUST of former poet laureate Sir John Betjeman could soon be put up in the Oxfordshire town where he lived, following a four-year wait.

Wantage Town Council is hoping to put a bronze bust of the popular poet on top of a plinth in front of the town’s Vale and Downland Museum in Church Street.

The statuette would be an exact copy of the head and shoulders of a statue of Betjeman at St Pancras Station in London.

The council originally announced plans to install a £50,000 replica of that statue in the grounds of the parish church opposite the museum in 2011, but that scheme did not happen.

Now it has applied for permission to install the much smaller and more affordable bust on a plinth at the museum.

In their application to Vale of White Horse District Council, town aldermen wrote: “The bust is a work of art. The installation will not adversely affect the listed building.

“The bust will be made of bronzeand an exact copy of the upper part of the internationally renowned statue of Sir John Betjeman at St Pancras Station.”

Sir John Betjeman lived in Wantage from 1951 to 1972 and wrote two poems about the town, Wantage Bells and On Leaving Wantage.

Residents can view the application online at whitehorsedc.co.uk using reference number P15/V1794/LB.

The Vale has said it will make a decision on the application by September 21.